Zhurong traverse in Utopia Planitia

Zhurong · 2021 CE – 2022 CE · Mars

Zhurong traverse in Utopia Planitia — Zhurong · 2021 CE – 2022 CE · Mars — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Drive south across a young northern plain and sound what lies beneath it.

Historical context

China sent an orbiter, a lander and a rover to Mars on a single launch and landed all three at the first attempt, something no other space programme had tried. Zhurong drove not quite two kilometres south across a young northern plain, sounding the ground beneath it with radar. Its layered profile revived an old question about how far a northern ocean once reached.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Landing in Utopia

    15 May 2021

    On 15 May 2021 the Tianwen-1 lander set down in southern Utopia Planitia, making China the second nation to put a working rover on Mars.

  2. A portrait on the sand

    2021 CE

    The rover drove clear of the platform, set a small wireless camera on the ground, backed up beside the lander and had the pair photographed by remote command.

  3. Dunes and troughs

    2021 CE

    Driving south, the rover examined bright barchan dunes overlaid by darker sand, and troughs cracked into the plain.

  4. Radar into the plain

    2021 CE

    A ground-penetrating radar aimed downward returned a layered profile to a depth of about eighty metres.

  5. An ancient shoreline

    2022 CE

    Pitted cones, troughs and the layered subsurface together fitted the idea of a shoreline where a northern ocean once ended.

  6. Hibernation

    18 May 2022

    On 18 May 2022, with winter and a dust storm coming, the rover shut itself down after 1,921 m, and never woke.

Outcome

1,921 m driven and radar layering found down to about eighty metres.

Zhurong

China's first Mars rover, which drove about 1.9 km across southern Utopia Planitia in 2021 and 2022.

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Sources

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