It is estimated that Mars rovers and explorers took about three months to take the images.
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Shanghai, China:
The state-run Xinhua News Agency said China’s Mars rover took off from its landing pad and began exploring the surface on Saturday, making it the second country to land and operate vehicles on the red planet.
The launch of the Mars Tianwen-1 probe last July, carrying the Zhurong rover, marked a milestone in China’s space program.
Tianwen-1 landed on a vast northern lava plain known as Utopia Planitia a week ago and sent the first images of its surface a few days later.
The probe and Mars explorer are expected to take about three months to take pictures, gather geographic data, and collect and analyze rock samples.
The solar-powered six-wheeled Zhurong, which weighs 240 kilograms (530 lbs), is named after the legendary Chinese god of fire.
China has now sent astronauts into space, led a rover to the moon and landed a rover on Mars – a coveted award among all the prizes in the competition for space mastery.
The United States and Russia are the only two countries that have reached Mars, and the first is the only one to operate a surface rover.
Several American, Russian and European attempts to land on Mars have failed in the past, most recently in 2016 with the landing of the joint Russian-European spacecraft, Schiaparelli.
The last successful arrival came in February, when NASA landed the Perseverance rover, which has been exploring the planet ever since.
US explorers launched small robotic helicopters to the surface of Mars in the first powered flight to another planet.
China has come a long way in a race to catch up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and astronauts have decades of experience in space exploration.
They successfully launched the first unit of their new space station last month with the hope that by 2022 it will be equipped and eventually send humans to the moon.
Last week, part of China’s Long March 5B missile destroyed over the Indian Ocean in an uncontrolled landing.
It has drawn criticism from the United States and other countries for violating rules of conduct governing the return of space debris to Earth, as officials say it could put life and property at risk.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is automatically generated from a shared feed.)
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