Photo: cnsa
Up until this year, the only nation with rovers on Mars was the United States. Thanks to a decades-old program, the country has managed to advance Mars exploration to heights that will probably never be matched by any other nation. Or will they?
To date, five rovers made in America, at least partially, have been sent to the Red Planet. They are the Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Of them, only two are presently still active, the Curiosity and the recently arrived Perseverance, and they’re accompanied by a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity.
Each of the five land-based pieces of hardware sent up there by the Americans is extraordinary in one way or another. A good chunk of them far exceeded their initial life expectancy, some have made discoveries no one expected, while others (or should we say pretty much all of them) have sent back precious data and images that kept keep scientists busy and the public in the loop.
Even if you personally are not all that interested in space exploration in general or the exploits of the human-made rover on Mars in particular, chances are you at least once saw a photo of the planet sent back by the said rovers or a selfie portraying one of them surrounded by the surreal Martian landscape.
They’re extraordinary stills, revealing a world our race might eventually end up colonizing, a future home for the generations to come. They also reveal how, at times, the lack of an idea so simple it should seem obvious to all allows others to take the lead.
The American photos of Mars show just the desolate landscape, or the motionless rovers from awkward angles, at times weirdly distorted on account of a large number of shots being stitched together for a more panoramic look.
To date, despite decades of experience, American engineers didn’t think of sending to the planet a wireless camera one of the rovers could plant in the soil and snap the first, proper photo of a human-made wheeled machine on Mars.
Also, despite decades of experience, the Americans didn’t consider for one bit they could use that camera to snap an actual video of the rovers moving on the reddish surface of the neighboring piece of rock, making this entire Mars exploration thing much more real for us here on Earth.
The Chinese did both in the span of a single month.
As you might already know, back in May, the Asian nation became the second to land a rover on Mars. Zhurong is how it’s called, and while it’s not supposed to live for long, it has already made history.
Shortly after it came down from its lander, it planted a wireless camera in the Martian soil and moved away some 30 feet (10 meters) to take a photo of itself and the lander, Chinese flag included—that reminds me, when's the last time you've seen the American flag on Mars?
That happened in mid-June, but now, as the month is drawing to a close, the Chinese released something even better: actual footage of the Zhurong moving away from the camera (check tweet attached below), which, if I am not mistaking, is the first time humans can experience a rover from this perspective.
China is a very propaganda-conscious nation and one that has ambitions of colonizing the solar system. It has these ambitions since about the same time as the Americans, but it is only in the past two decades or so that they have really taken off.
That’s because China is pumping huge amounts of resources into space exploration. In the span of a few short years, the country sent its people to space, landed on Mars, and sent a crew to a space station it just began building in orbit this month.
The scary (or encouraging, depending on which side of the fence you're on) part is that this whole space thing seems to come natural to the Chinese, who make it look all easy and simple.
It might be a big gamble, but if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on China becoming the first to send people to Mars, and who knows, even set up a colony there.
Each of the five land-based pieces of hardware sent up there by the Americans is extraordinary in one way or another. A good chunk of them far exceeded their initial life expectancy, some have made discoveries no one expected, while others (or should we say pretty much all of them) have sent back precious data and images that kept keep scientists busy and the public in the loop.
Even if you personally are not all that interested in space exploration in general or the exploits of the human-made rover on Mars in particular, chances are you at least once saw a photo of the planet sent back by the said rovers or a selfie portraying one of them surrounded by the surreal Martian landscape.
They’re extraordinary stills, revealing a world our race might eventually end up colonizing, a future home for the generations to come. They also reveal how, at times, the lack of an idea so simple it should seem obvious to all allows others to take the lead.
The American photos of Mars show just the desolate landscape, or the motionless rovers from awkward angles, at times weirdly distorted on account of a large number of shots being stitched together for a more panoramic look.
To date, despite decades of experience, American engineers didn’t think of sending to the planet a wireless camera one of the rovers could plant in the soil and snap the first, proper photo of a human-made wheeled machine on Mars.
Also, despite decades of experience, the Americans didn’t consider for one bit they could use that camera to snap an actual video of the rovers moving on the reddish surface of the neighboring piece of rock, making this entire Mars exploration thing much more real for us here on Earth.
The Chinese did both in the span of a single month.
As you might already know, back in May, the Asian nation became the second to land a rover on Mars. Zhurong is how it’s called, and while it’s not supposed to live for long, it has already made history.
Shortly after it came down from its lander, it planted a wireless camera in the Martian soil and moved away some 30 feet (10 meters) to take a photo of itself and the lander, Chinese flag included—that reminds me, when's the last time you've seen the American flag on Mars?
That happened in mid-June, but now, as the month is drawing to a close, the Chinese released something even better: actual footage of the Zhurong moving away from the camera (check tweet attached below), which, if I am not mistaking, is the first time humans can experience a rover from this perspective.
China is a very propaganda-conscious nation and one that has ambitions of colonizing the solar system. It has these ambitions since about the same time as the Americans, but it is only in the past two decades or so that they have really taken off.
That’s because China is pumping huge amounts of resources into space exploration. In the span of a few short years, the country sent its people to space, landed on Mars, and sent a crew to a space station it just began building in orbit this month.
The scary (or encouraging, depending on which side of the fence you're on) part is that this whole space thing seems to come natural to the Chinese, who make it look all easy and simple.
It might be a big gamble, but if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on China becoming the first to send people to Mars, and who knows, even set up a colony there.
China’s Zhurong rover driving along the surface of Mars! pic.twitter.com/LOOsn1tOOS
— Everything Space (@totalspace360) June 27, 2021
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