China is preparing to touch the Martian soil for the first time: its rover, named Zhurong after the god of fire, should land on the soil of Mars at 1.11 am CET on Saturday 15 May.
If the landing does not happen then, it will be possible to try again until May 19th.
The news, which had already begun to circulate on many international sites, was officially confirmed by the Chinese space agency CNSA.
For three months, the Tianwen-1 probe has been orbiting Mars awaiting orders from Beijing. Timetable Ye Peijian, scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and key researcher of the lunar program, said in a conference at the Beijing Institute of Technology that the rover would land around 7:11 am on Saturday 1.11 am in Italy), local media reported.
The window for the arrival on Martian soil was initially estimated between mid-May and mid-June so that the historic event could happen as close to 1 July, the day of commemoration of the 100 years of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
The launch of the Tianwen-1 probe, which took place on July 23, 2020, marked a milestone in China's space program, seen as a sign of its growing global stature and technological power.
The probe has reached the ideal position to release the rover: the vast lava plain of the planet's northern hemisphere called Utopia Planitia. For the first time, therefore, even a Chinese vehicle is preparing to face the "seven minutes of terror", the time necessary for the descent to the surface of the planet, always full of unknowns.
The Zhurong rover was named after the ancient God of fire and resembles the name of Mars, which in Chinese is called the Fire Star. If the mission is successful, the six-wheeled, solar-powered rover weighing about 240 kilograms will collect and analyze rock samples from the planet's surface, where it is expected to work for about three months.
China will thus become the first country in the world to perform an orbit, landing and itinerant mission in its first mission to Mars and the third to touch the surface of the Martian after Russia and the United States.