State media have announced China has ‘spectacularly conquered’ a new milestone – joining NASAs’ Perseverance rover that landed in February – on the red planet.
Hello from #Mars!
China's first Mars rover #Zhurong send out the first Weibo post on Saturday greeting to the public after it touched down on the Red Planet, says it will collect and send back information about the Martian surface in the next few days. pic.twitter.com/bBqmFuQ5hr
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) May 15, 2021
Zhurong – a solar-powered rover is set to survey its’ landing site before breaking away from the landing platform to collect and analyse rock samples from Mars’ surface.
Zhurong has six wheels, a solar-powered array and weighs in at roughly 240kg.
The landing was announced alongside this wonderful image of the team at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center celebrating
The landing is the latest in a string of successes for China’s space program following the launch of Tianwen-1 last July.
The successful mission makes China the very first country to carry out a Martian orbit, landing and roving operation on its first mission to Mars. Something neither the US or Russian – the only other two nations to reach Mars – managed to do.
