La Jornada – China publishes new images of Mars, sent by the Tianwen-1 probe and the Zhurong robot

Madrid. The China Aerospace Administration (CNSA) has published new images of Mars sent by the orbiter Tianwen-1 and your robot Zurong on the surface of the red planet.

The images include a group photo of the rover and Mars, a close-up of the spacecraft, ice cover in the planet’s north pole region as seen from orbit, and a surface landscape captured by Zurong.

The robotic probe was launched in July 2020 Tianwen 1, Named after an ancient Chinese poem, it traveled a total of 475 million kilometers and carried out several trajectory maneuvers before entering Mars orbit on February 10, 2021.

After more than three months of preparations, a lander launched by the probe descended through the atmosphere and finally reached the red planet on May 15, making China the second country, after the United States, to succeed in reaching Mars.

May 22, Zurong It was deployed to Mars, becoming the sixth robot on Mars, after five predecessors from the United States.

Until Saturday morning Zurong With a height of 1.85 meters and a weight of 240 kilograms, it worked on the surface of Mars for 224 days, far exceeding its life expectancy of three months. The agency stated that the robot had covered a distance of more than 1,400 meters.

the mission Tianwen-1 It performs the planned exploration and testing tasks, obtaining about 560 gigabytes of data. Both the probe and the robot are in good condition and working normally.