China’s Mars rover Zhurong has outlived its three-month life expectancy with
all of its predetermined tasks completed, according to the China National
Space Administration.
The administration announced on Tuesday that the 1.85-meter-tall robot,
which is now hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth, will continue
carrying out an extended expedition toward an ancient coastal area of Utopia
Planitia, a large plain within the largest known impact basin in the solar
system.
The 240-kilogram robot is the core component of the Tianwen 1 mission, the
country’s first interplanetary adventure, and is also the sixth rover on
Mars, following five others launched by the United States.
Tianwen 1, named after an ancient Chinese poem, traveled more than 470
million km and carried out several trajectory maneuvers before entering
Mars’ orbit on Feb 10. Zhurong touched down on the planet on May 15 and
separated from its landing platform a week later.
By now, Zhurong has obtained about 10 GB of primary data and has moved about
900 meters.
According to Sun Zezhou, head designer of the Tianwen 1 probe, the rover
will suspend its operations from mid-September to late-October due to the
anticipated disruption of its communications with Earth caused by solar
electromagnetic radiation, and will then resume its mission.
Zhurong’s success has marked the completion of all of Tianwen 1’s mission
objectives-orbiting Mars for comprehensive observation, landing on the
planet and deploying a rover to conduct scientific operations – also making
Tianwen 1 the first Mars expedition to accomplish all three goals with one
probe.
Tianwen 1 is the latest example of China’s rapidly expanding presence in
outer space, following a string of recent accomplishments that include
putting the first section of the country’s permanent space station into
orbit, returning the first lunar samples to Earth in more than four decades
and completing a global navigation satellite network.
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