CHINA’S Mars rover is expected to land on the Red Planet tonight as the country competes with the US and the UAE’s 2021 missions.
The rover will have to go through ‘seven minutes of terror’ at around 7:11pm ET, which is just after midnight in the UK.
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The Zhurong rover is part of China’s first interplanetary mission.
A successful touchdown will make history for the country as it’s never landed a rover on Mars before.
It would also mean the Zhurong rover and Nasa’s Perseverance rover will be exploring the planet at the same time.
Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 and the UAE put a probe into the Red Planet’s orbit on February 9.
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China’s rover will begin its descent around the same location that the Perseverance rover did earlier in the year.
The descent is known as the ‘seven minutes of terror’ because of the terrifying and extremely hot conditions the spacecraft will have to go through.
It will reach speeds of around 12,000 miles per hour and scientists will lose connection with it for around 10 minutes.
The rover will have to suddenly slow down in order to land in one piece.
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The rover is currently stowed away in the belly of China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft that’s also been orbiting Mars since February.
It’s aiming to land exactly where Nasa’s 1976 Viking 2 lander did.
That’s a spot called the Utopia Planitia basin, which is said to contain ice depsoits.
China hasn’t revealed a detailed plan for its mission but lots of countries have their eye of space ice at the moment.
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The Tianwen-1 spacecraft has a heat shield and a parachute which should ensure a safe landing.
It’s also said to have a ramp to help the Zhurong rover roll out onto the surface of Mars.
Zhurong means ‘Quest for Heavenly Truth’ in English.
Mars facts
Here’s what you need to know about the Red Planet…
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
- It is named after the Roman god of war
- The landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can here
- Mars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than Everest
- Mars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after Earth
- It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
- So far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful
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In other space news, a Nasa spacecraft has begun a 1.4billion-mile journey back to Earth after collecting rock samples from an ancient asteroid.
Nasa has released historic first audio recordings captured on the surface of Mars.
And, China and Russia have pledged to build a shared Moon base, marking the start of a new era in space cooperation between the two countries.
What are your thoughts on the Mars space race? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
