BEIJING: “The last 90 days were a milestone, a complete success,” said Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China’s first Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1.
The Zhurong rover reached its initial working target of 90 days on Mars, approximately 92 days on Earth, on August 15.
“So far the orbiter is in good condition. The rover is also moving steadily ahead. It will go farther to continue exploration,” Zhang said.
Over the past three months, Zhurong has traveled nearly 889 meters on the surface of the red planet in China’s first inter-planetary survey. Researchers said the Mars mission has helped them learn more about the past and present of the desolate planet. Providing precious data and experience, China’s Mars exploration is expected to pave the way for the country’s deep-space expeditions in the future. The mission has so far collected over 420 gigabytes of data from both the rover and the orbiter, including visuals of land features, analysis of soil samples and readings of the atmosphere on Mars.
“We have a better understanding of the atmosphere on Mars now. Normally we believe temperatures on the planet are around -60 to -50 degrees Celsius,” said Liu Jianjun, chief designer of the ground application system of the Tianwen-1 probe.”
–The Daily Mail-CGTN
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