Last week, the Chinese National Aerospace Administration (CNSA) landed the Zhurong rover on Utopia Planitia, making it the second country to successfully land a rover on Tuesday. The rover is sending data and telemetry back to Earth via the Tianwen-1 orbit, some of which are still being analyzed. Released information contains images.
These are the first images taken by non-missionaries from the surface of the Red Planet and hopefully, they started a lot come from this rover. There are some differences between the Tianwen-1 and the Lander module. The six-wheeled vehicle is still in its lander as the team investigates the surrounding area.
It will soon descend from a slight ramp and begin its mission entirely towards Martian territory. Rumors are currently proposing May 22 as the start of the campaign, but no official confirmation has been received yet. Equipped with Zhurong cameras, spectrometers, a weather station, magnetic field detectors, and even a -penetrating radar. This device will allow scientists to take pictures about 100 meters (330 feet) below the surface of Mars.
The rover is expected to operate for 90 one-time – one sol one Martian day – which is related to 92 days on Earth. This goal could be surpassed by many NASA rovers as well as CNSA Moon Rovers Yutu and Yutu-2, which surpassed their nominal three-month mission. CNSA said in a statement, “The front region of the rover is clearly visible in the image and the horizon of Mars will appear curved due to the wide-angle lens.”
The black-and-white snap shows the ramp extending to the ground inside the lander to turn the solar-powered rover over the surface. A CNS official suggested that it could be taken by the end of the month to get the first Zhurong image out, but this release suggests that the equipment is healthy and the communication relationship between the rover and the Tianwen-1 orbit is working well. As a bonus, GIFO has released short videos of landers and rovers separating from orbit during the CNSA landing process. These comments are reminiscent of NASA’s persistent rover deliveries to Mars in February.
