---
title: "Check Out This Huge Hole That China’s Mars Rover Blasted Into the Ground While Landing"
description: "In the new photos from China's Mars lander, there's an interesting detail with profound implications for the future of Mars exploration: a huge hole."
date: "2021-06-11"
modified: "2021-06-11"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/huge-hole-china-mars-rover"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "china"
  - "mars"
  - "rocketry"
  - "the digest"
---

# Check Out This Huge Hole That China’s Mars Rover Blasted Into the Ground While Landing

![In the new photos from China's Mars lander, there's an interesting detail with profound implications for the future of Mars exploration: a huge hole.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/RocketHole.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://twitter.com/Astro_Jonny/status/1403255595780673538" target="\_blank"\> @Astro\_Jonny via Twitter / Futurism  \</a\>\</em\>*

## New Crater

Dedicated Mars watchers will recall that this morning, China [released new photos](<https://futurism.com/china-new-photos-surface-mars>) from the Red Planet that showed off its lander, rover, and the beautiful landscape of the Utopia Planitia.

Space journalist Jonathan O'Callaghan pointed out [something interesting about one of the photos](<https://twitter.com/Astro_Jonny/status/1403255595780673538>): you can see a deep hole that the lander punched in the Martian ground — a fun observation, but also a physical effect that could have profound implications for the future of Mars explanation.

## Down to Earth

Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida, said that the hole could have outsize implications for heavier landings.

"Now that's a crater," Metzger [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/DrPhiltill/status/1403368876608479234>). "Note the steep sides of the hole due to the cohesion of the soil. Now imagine a 40 ton lander and how big its hole will be. That hole will likely collapse (especially as the hole dries out over the coming weeks) sapping soil away from the footpads."

SpaceX's in-development Starship, for comparison, [is projected](<https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/super-heavy-starship.htm>) to have a dry weight of some 85 tons. But that's not all, Metzger said.

"This soil sapping from the footpads may induce tilting of the lander," he [continued](<https://twitter.com/DrPhiltill/status/1403368876608479234>). "That's 1 of the 3 risks of landing very large landers on Mars. The 2nd is ejecta hitting the lander as the rocket exhaust comes back up from the hole before engine cutoff. 3rd: hitting surrounding hardware."

## Hole Story

Will rocket scientists figure out how to safely land on Mars' soft soil? Quite possibly. But for now, facetious theories about the hole abound.

"Either that or a very angry Martian coming out of it's burrow to see what all the fuss is about," [tweeted](<https://twitter.com/jjaron/status/1403258700148662272>) *New Scientist*'s deputy news editor Jacob Aron.

**More on the Zhurong rover:** [*Chinese Rover Sends Back First Photos From Surface of Mars*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/chinese-rover-first-pictures-mars>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)