Zhurong

Context:

China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god.

The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit on February 24 and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.

What is Zhurong?

It is China’s first Mars rover aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit in February 2020.
It is named after a traditional fire god.
The rover is part of Chinese space plans that include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon.
The rover’s title fits with the Chinese name for Mars i.e. “Huo Xing” or fire star.
The top candidate for the landing site is Utopia Planitia, a rock-strewn plain where the U.S. lander Viking 2 touched down in 1976.

Background

In 2019, China became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time.
China would become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a robot rover on Mars.

Its goals include analysing and mapping the Martian surface and geology, looking for water ice and studying the climate and surface environment.
It is named after the ancient Chinese poem ‘Questions to Heaven’.
It is an all-in-one orbiter, lander and rover which will search the Martian surface for water, ice, investigate soil characteristics, and study the atmosphere, among completing other objectives.
It lifted off on a Long March 5 rocket, a launch system developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), from the Wenchang launch centre.
It will be the first to place a ground-penetrating radar on the Martian surface, which will be able to study local geology, as well as rock, ice, and dirt distribution.

There are five core science objectives:

Create a geological map of Mars.
Explore the characteristics of the Martian soil and potentially locate water-ice deposits.
Analyze the surface material composition.
Investigate the Martian atmosphere and climate at the surface.
Understand the electromagnetic and gravitational fields of the planet.