{"id":8979,"date":"2021-02-11T07:31:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-11T07:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/?p=8979"},"modified":"2021-02-11T07:31:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T07:31:28","slug":"chinese-spacecraft-successfully-enters-mars-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/2021\/02\/11\/chinese-spacecraft-successfully-enters-mars-orbit\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese spacecraft successfully enters Mars orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft on Wednesday successfully entered orbit around Mars after a 6-1\/2-month journey from Earth, China\u2019s space agency said, in the country\u2019s first independent mission to the red planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The robotic probe carried out a 15-minute burn of its thrusters at 7:52 p.m. Beijing time (1152 GMT), the China National Space Administration said in a statement, slowing the spacecraft to a speed at which it could be captured by the pull of Mars\u2019 gravity.<\/p>\n

In May or June, the Tianwen-1 will attempt to land a capsule carrying a 240-kg rover in a rapid seven-minute descent onto a massive plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars known as Utopia Planitia.<\/p>\n

If the landing is successful, the solar-powered rover will explore the Martian surface for 90 days, studying its soil and seeking signs of ancient life, including any sub-surface water and ice using a ground-penetrating radar.<\/p>\n

Tianwen-1, or \u201cQuestions to Heaven\u201d, the name of a Chinese poem written two millennia ago, is China\u2019s first independent mission to the planet after a probe co-launched with Russia failed to leave the Earth\u2019s orbit in 2011.<\/p>\n

The probe is one of three reaching Mars this month. The Hope spacecraft launched by the United Arab Emirates successfully entered the planet\u2019s orbit on Tuesday. Hope will not make a landing but will orbit Mars gathering data on its weather and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Tianwen-1 will also have an orbiter component surveying the Martian atmosphere with a range of instruments including a high-resolution image camera.<\/p>\n

The two probes join six other orbiting spacecraft above Mars launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and India.<\/p>\n

In the United States\u2019 most ambitious Mars mission, the 1-tonne Perseverance probe is expected to arrive on Feb. 18. It will immediately attempt a landing in a rocky depression with precipitous cliffs called Jezero Crater.<\/p>\n

On the surface, Perseverance will gather rock samples for retrieval by a future mission. Two other NASA rovers \u2013 Curiosity and InSight \u2013 are currently operating on the planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Perseverance will also attempt to deploy a small helicopter named Ingenuity in the thin Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft on Wednesday successfully entered orbit around Mars after a 6-1\/2-month journey from Earth, China\u2019s space agency said, in the country\u2019s first independent mission to the red planet. The robotic probe carried out a 15-minute burn of its thrusters at 7:52 p.m. Beijing time (1152 GMT), the China National Space Administration said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8981,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8979\/revisions\/8981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}