Zhurong (rover)

Zhurong (Chinese: 祝融; pinyin: Zhùróng) is a Chinese rover on Mars, the country's first to land on another planet after it previously landed two rovers on the Moon. The rover is part of the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars conducted by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The spacecraft was launched on 23 July 2020 and inserted into Martian orbit on 10 February 2021. The lander, carrying the rover, performed a soft landing on Mars on 14 May 2021, making China the third country to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on Mars and the second one to deploy a rover on Mars that is transmitting, after the United States. Zhurong was deployed on 22 May 2021, 02:40 UTC. Designed for a lifespan of 90 sols (93 Earth days), Zhurong was active for more than 347 sols (358 days) after its deployment on Mars's surface. The rover entered a planned hibernation on 18 May 2022 due to approaching sandstorms and Martian winter. With appropriate temperature and sunlight conditions, Zhurong was expected to wake up in December 2022 but never did due to excessive dust accumulation, according to the rover's chief designer.

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