China’s Zhurong Rover Rolls onto Surface of Mars

BEIJING (CNSA PR) — Judging from the telemetry data, at 10:40 on May 22, the Zhurong rover had safely left the landing platform, reached the surface of Mars, and began to patrol and explore.

The scientific goal of the Tianwen-1 mission is to study the morphology and geological structure characteristics of Mars, the characteristics of the soil on the surface of Mars and the distribution of water ice, the composition of the surface material on Mars, the ionosphere of Mars and the characteristics of the surface climate and environment, the physical field and internal structure of Mars, etc. .

Since the probe was launched on July 23, 2020, during the ground-fire transfer flight and the ring-fire orbit operation, the orbiter is equipped with a medium-resolution camera, a high-resolution camera, a mineral spectrum analyzer, a magnetometer and other 7 scientific instruments. The payload started to detect and obtain scientific data. 

During the fire surface work, the rover will carry out environmental perception, fire surface movement and scientific detection in the patrol area as planned. Through the configuration of the terrain camera, multi-spectral camera, subsurface detection radar, surface composition detector and other 6 payloads, the inspection area Carry out detailed detection. 

At the same time, the orbiter will operate in the relay orbit to provide stable relay communication for the Mars rover patrol and detection, and take into account the development of surround detection.