China’s Mars Rover Zhurong Completes Planned Exploration Tasks, Still In Good Condition

China has described its Mars exploration mission as a complete success. The announcement came after the rover completed its planned exploration tasks on the Red Planet. China’s Mars exploration mission is named Tianwen-1. The name of the rover is Zhurong. This is China’s first Mars exploration mission. The mission was launched in July 2020. The probe entered into the Martian orbit in February this year. The probe circled the planned to identify a landing site for Zhurong. The rover landed on the planet’s surface on May 14. It touched down at Utopia Planitia which is a large plain. Zhurong is the first Mars rover to land on another planet. It has since then sent several photographs of the Red Planet.

According to Zhurong’s designer, the rover achieved a milestone in the last 90 Martian days. It has reached the initial working target. The rover is still in healthy condition. It is fastly moving ahead on the surface. The rover is continuing with the exploration task. The rover has covered a distance of 889 meters in the last three months. The orbiter is also in good condition. Both the orbiter and rover are providing vital data. Chinese researchers said that the mission has helped them to learn more about the Earth’s neighbor that is believed to have hosted Earth-like life. China is hopeful that Tianwen-1 will allow scientists to develop and determine the path for future missions that include landing astronauts on the planet and deep space exploration.

According to China, both the orbiter and rover have collected 420 gigabytes of data. This includes visuals of land, analysis of Martian soil, and the atmosphere. The probe will allow scientists to understand the planet’s atmosphere in a better way. The Martian atmosphere is very thin. The temperature drops to minus 50 degrees Celsius in some parts. The solar outage is a big challenge on mars. The sunlight is the main source of energy for the rover’s battery system. The cold and little sunlight could affect its communication system. By mid-September, Mars and Earth will be farthest apart as the Sun will be between the two planets. Sun’s radiation could pose a difficulty in sending and receiving signals from the orbiter and rover.