Xi sends congratulatory letter on Mars probe's historic landing

By Zhao Lei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-05-15 08:41
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The graphic simulated image taken on May 15, 2021 shows China's probe landing on Mars. The lander carrying China's first Mars rover has touched down on the red planet, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirmed on Saturday morning. It is the first time China has landed a probe on a planet other than Earth. [Photo/Xinhua]

Due to the long distance between Mars and Earth, which now stands at about 320 million km, and the resulting delay in signal transmission, the whole entry-descent-landing process must be carried out autonomously by the landing capsule based on a preset program and data obtained by its sensors.

According to its predetermined program, as soon as the atmospheric entry began, the capsule would first use a heat shield to decelerate, which means the craft would rely on aerodynamic drag to slow down. And then it would deploy a parachute to further reduce the speed and drop the heat shield. In the next step, the craft would unfold its four landing legs, drop the parachute together with the back shell, and then would ignite its retrorockets at an altitude of 1.5 km above the Martian surface.

When the spacecraft reaches about 100 meters above the surface, it would suspend the descent and spend some time observing and analyzing the selected landing point to check for obstacles such as rocks. With a positive result, the craft would continue descending until the last moment above the surface, when the retrorockets would be shut down and the capsule would touch down on Martian soil. If, however, the landing site looked unsuitable, the spacecraft would make slight adjustments to touch down on a suitable adjacent site.

After the highly sophisticated maneuvers, the capsule successfully landed at 7:18 am on the southern part of the Utopia Planitia, a large plain within Utopia, the largest known impact basin on Mars and in the solar system.

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