China wants to land first Mars rover on planet in the coming days

China’s first Mars rover is to land on the surface of Mars between Saturday morning and Wednesday. There, the rover will drive around 90 sols and carry out soil investigations on the planet with instruments.

It concerns the Zhurong rover, which is still in a probe that orbits the planet. That probe entered orbit around Mars three months ago. China’s national space agency CNSA says that after evaluating flight status, the satellite will launch a landing campaign for the rover between Saturday and Wednesday. Utopia Planitia is the intended landing target.

The rover will make use of parachutes and retro-missiles when landing. If China manages to land the rover, it will be the third country to do so, after Russia and the United States. The rover has six instruments on board for soil research, such as a radar instrument that can see through the surface of the planet. Landing takes about seven minutes and takes place without direct control from China.

The Tianwen-1 probe and Zhurong rover are both part of China’s first Mars mission. The satellite was launched in July last year. CNSA says “vast amounts of scientific data” have been collected since February. The probe has 13 instruments on board and can investigate the atmosphere, magnetic field and climate of Mars, among other things.