China’s first Mars rover has powered down from its landing platform and is now exploring the red planet’s surface, according to China’s space administration on Saturday.
The solar-powered rover landed on Mars at 10:40 a.m. Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), according to the China National Space Administration.
Last Saturday, China landed the spacecraft carrying the rover on Mars, a technically impossible feat more difficult than a moon landing and a first for the world. After the United States, it is the second nation to do so.
The rover, named after the Chinese god of fire, Zhurong, had been conducting diagnostic tests for several days before it began its discovery on Saturday. It will be deployed for 90 days to look for signs of life.
The United States also has a Mars mission in progress, with the Perseverance rover and a tiny helicopter exploring the surface. NASA anticipates that the rover will gather its first sample in July and will return to Earth as early as 2031.
China has grandiose space dreams, including the launch of a crewed orbital station and the landing of a human on the moon. China became the first nation to land a space rover on the moon’s little-explored far side in 2019, and returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s in December.
