China’s Zhurong vs. NASA’s Perseverance: Rover Tech in Mars Space Race | WSJ

– [Narrator] This is NASA’s Perseverance rover. And this is China’s Zhurong Rover, named after the Chinese god of fire. And these two vehicles are on a mission to explore Mars. – The US and China are clearly in a political competition here on Earth, so it should not be surprising that it has now also become part of the space aspect. – [Announcer] Roger, three seconds. – [Narrator] The US is the global leader with more than 50 years of Mars research. – [NASA] About 20 meters off the surface. – [Narrator] And last February, Perseverance was NASA’s fifth rover to land there. China is the newcomer with a Mars program that started in 2006. But the country has big plans for its first mission, called Tianwen-1. (people cheering) – The fact that Tianwen-1 is an orbiter lander and rover all in one is a very gutsy move for a first mission. – [Narrator] This ambition makes the Zhurong rover different from NASA’s Perseverance. So here’s what these two vehicles are carrying and what they can tell us about the new space race between both superpowers. Since this is China’s first attempt to touch down on Mars, a major goal is to make sure its rover actually lands in one piece. And it’s expected to happen some time in May. – Landing on Mars is very difficult. – [Narrator] Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. And he’s been studying space programs around the world for over 40 years. – It’s harder than landing on Earth from space because the atmosphere is thinner, so parachutes don’t work as well. And it’s harder than landing on the moon. You can’t just use the rocket engines. – [Narrator] So the Chinese lander that will release the Zhurong rover has an intermediate solution, using parachutes and rocket thrusters to slow down for a softer landing. – You wanna go somewhere that you maximize your chances of a successful mission because there’s already so many things that can go wrong. – [Narrator] So China has chosen a relatively easy place for touchdown, a basin in the northern hemisphere, known as Utopia Planitia. It’s where NASA landed its second Mars lander, the Viking 2, in 1976. – It doesn’t have a lot of big mountains or big canyons or cliffs that the rover might fall off and so it’s a good first place to try and explore. – [Narrator] Since this is old terrain for NASA, Perseverance landed in a different area, called the Jezero Crater. – [Jonathan] So Perseverance has landed at the edge of an old river delta. So you have this landscape, which is a mixture of craters and mountains that are gentle, rolling hills. – [Narrator] It’s a tougher landing area compared with Utopia Planitia. But Perseverance is equipped with a more advanced landing system called Skycrane. – [NASA] About to conduct the Skycrane maneuver. – [Narrator] So it helped the rover hover above ground while a computer vision system scanned for obstacles. These two different types of terrains mean both countries have packed their rovers with different scientific goals in mind. And one of China’s main focuses is getting familiar with the new planet. – It has a pretty standard set of instruments that will help Chinese scientists understand what it’s like to operate at Mars. – [Narrator] China is bringing better tech to Utopia Planitia than when NASA did decades ago. – The technology on the Zhurong rover is probably similar to what was on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that NASA flew a few years ago. And it’s still fairly modern tech. – [Narrator] So this is Zhurong’s multi-spectral camera, which can take pictures in different colored filters to study various rocks on Mars’ surface. There’s also a penetrating radar that emits radio waves and when pointed at the surface, the rover can pick up signals and collect data about what’s underneath, particularly water ice. Like Zhurong, Perseverance is also surveying Mars but it’s larger in size. So NASA has equipped it with more tools, like a helicopter called Ingenuity that could one day help explore the planet on a bigger scale. – [Jonathan] It’s the first object to make a controlled flight in the atmosphere of another planet, which is quite an engineering challenge. (NASA cheering) – [Narrator] One of the main goals is to learn about life on the red planet and scientists say the best way to do this is bringing back samples to Earth. So Perseverance has a robotic arm that can drill into the surface, extract rocks or collect loose soil. The samples are then put in clean tubes to prevent contamination. And then these are stored here, inside the rover’s tummy. NASA plans to bring back the samples to Earth by 2031 in a joint mission with the European Space Agency. – Even though, in some respects, the US space technology is still the most advanced, the missions that China’s executing are actually very impressive now. So they’ve been catching up very quickly. – China’s space program has enjoyed support from the absolute top leadership since the very beginning, dating back to Mao Zedong. – [Narrator] Dean Cheng is a research fellow at the Washington-based think tank, the Heritage Foundation. And he’s been watching China’s space program for more than 20 years. He says the country’s political system is an advantage when it comes to planning ambitious projects, like going to Mars. – Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t face regular elections. So China is able to make longer-term decisions and as important, sustain those decisions. – [Narrator] And those decisions are financially sustained. So while there’s little public information about China’s space budget, Cheng says it’s likely not a small amount. – China doesn’t provide those numbers but what we do know is, for example, China has four space launch facilities. That’s more than any other country. – [Narrator] China’s state-funded program makes it fundamentally different to how NASA works. (NASA cheering) – So the US, for example, has talked about going back to the moon for at least 20 years. But with each Congress and with each president, priorities change, funding therefore changes. – [Narrator] For instance, NASA’s annual budget hasn’t hit its peak from the 1960s, fluctuating more or less over the years. And in contrast to China, NASA is an open civilian agency. It has shared its technology and fostered a commercial space industry. (rocket roaring) – [Announcer] And liftoff. – [Narrator] Which has taken over many of NASA’s launch tasks and helped with space exploration. So if the Zhurong lands and operates on Mars, that means China will have done more and faster in less time than the US. This success wouldn’t just be a point of national pride but would also get the country closer to accomplishing other space goals, including building a moon base and its own International Space Station. – China is presenting itself as an alternative. With regards to the moon and Mars, most of that is for political signaling, political demonstrations to show the world who has a more capable technological base and a better political system. (dramatic music)