China Lands Uncrewed Spacecraft On Mars For First Time

China has landed an uncrewed spacecraft on Mars, becoming the second country to put a rover on the planet.

The six-wheeled rover, Zhurong, named after a god of fire in Chinese mythology, reached Utopia Planitia, a large plain in Mars’ northern hemisphere.

It’s also where NASA’s Viking 2 landed in 1976.

The rover used a combination of a parachute, a protective capsule, and a rocket platform to make the descent.

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter will relay its signal to the rover during its mission and conduct a global survey of the planet for one Martian year.