China’s 1st Mars rover steps out to explore red planet

Beijing: China‘s first Mars rover on Saturday drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface to start exploring the surface of the red planet.

The six-wheeled solar-powered rover named Zhurong, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trundled off a ramp on the lander to hit the red, sandy soil of Mars, starting its journey to explore the fourth planet from the Sun, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

China’s Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020.