Zhurong
GS PAPER III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
Context: Chinese spacecraft successfully lands on surface of Mars. The Tianwen-1 spacecraft landed on a site on the Southern Utopia Plain, "leaving a Chinese footprint on Mars for the first time.
Zhurong
- Named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, the Chinese Mars rover Zhurong’ successfully landed on the surface of Mars, making China the second space-faring nation after the United States to land on the Red Planet.
- It will study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere.
- Zhurong will also look for signs of ancient life, including any sub-surface water and ice, using a ground-penetrating radar.
- A solar-powered rover, Zhurong has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution opography camera.
Tianwen-1
- Tianwen-1, or "Questions to Heaven", after a Chinese poem written two millennia ago, is China's first independent mission to Mars.
- A probe co-launched with Russia in 2011 failed to leave the Earth's orbit.
- The five-tonne spacecraft blasted off from the southern Chinese island of Hainan in July last year, launched by the powerful Long March 5 rocket.
- After more than six months in transit, Tianwen-1 reached the Red Planet in February where it had been in orbit since.
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