China's First Mars Rover 'ZhuRong' Successfully Lands on the Red Planet

China successfully achieved the feat of landing its first Mars Rover ‘ Zhu Rong’ on the red planet, on May 15, 2021, becoming the only second nation to do so.
Till date, only the United States have successfully landed its rover on Mars. All other countries that have tried have either crashed or lost contact soon after reaching the surface.
This achievement is part of ‘Tianwen-1 mission’, China’s first interplanetary endeavor, to study the Red planet’s geology.
Tianwen-1 consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket in June 2020 and reached Mars’ orbit in February 2021.

About Zhurong

Zhurong, in Chinese translates to God of Fire.
The Zhurong robot was carried to Mars on the Tianwen-1 orbiter.
The six-wheeled Zhurong robot weighs about 240 kg and is powered by fold-out solar panels.
The site where the robot has been landed is called Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
The robot has cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments to investigate the mineralogy of local rocks and the general nature of the environment, including the weather, laser tool to zap rocks to assess their chemistry and a radar to look for sub-surface water-ice.