China lands a spacecraft on Mars | Univision Scientific News

China managed to land a spaceship On Mars For the first time, as part of the latest developments in his space program. The new China News Agency (Xinhua) said on Saturday (local time) that the probe landed, citing the China National Space Administration.

According to plan, the probe will roll It will stay in the pedigree unit for a few days For diagnostic tests before going down a slope to explore an area The ice cap on Mars is known as Utopia Planitia. The Chinese probe joins another American probe that arrived in February on the Red Planet.

the first Landing China On Mars after the launch of the main section last month of what will be a permanent and important space station that brought rocks back from the moon late last year.

“China left a fingerprint on Mars for the first time, which is an important step for space exploration in our country,” Xinhua said when announcing the landing on one of its social media accounts.

United State It has achieved nine successful landings on Mars since 1976. The Soviet Union landed on the planet in 1971, but the mission failed after the spacecraft stopped sending information shortly after the landing.

A probe and a small helicopter from the US landing in February are currently exploring Mars. NASA expects the probe to collect its first sample in July to return to Earth a decade ago.

China has already landed a probe on the moon, but doing so on Mars is a more difficult process because the planet’s atmosphere is so thin.

Ships must use protective shields due to the intense heat entering the atmosphere, as well as old missiles and parachutes to slow them down to prevent them from hitting the surface. Parachutes and missiles must be activated at specific moments in order to land at the designated location.

To descend on the moon, only small rocket ships are required, and parachutes are sufficient to return to Earth, since its atmosphere is denser.