Curiosity sends a panorama picture and China’s Zhurong continues
Photo of Mars from the Curiosity rover. (Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS)
Nasa’s Curiosity rover gives us a breathtaking panoramic view of Mars. Meanwhile, the mission of the Chinese Mars rover Zhurong continues.
Its successor Perseverance, which landed on Mars in early 2021, may be more modern, but the Curiosity rover is still doing its job there after nine years. What the cameras of the vehicle get to see, NASA recently published an impressive one Panoramic shot shown. Because it is winter at the location of the Curiosity rover, there is currently very little dust in the atmosphere. Therefore, the camera can take particularly clear pictures.
In addition to Curiosity and Perseverance, there is a third vehicle on Mars: the Chinese Zhurong rover landed on the red planet in May 2021. Since then, the vehicle has moved around 900 meters above the surface of Mars and collected ten gigabytes of data. The 1.85 meter high vehicle will continue to explore Mars. The Chinese space agency has announced that the rover’s mission will be extended. Zhurong is still in good shape and has enough energy to move to the Martian region Utopia Planitia to advance.
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Mars Rover: From the 1970s to the present day
As early as 1971, Soviet researchers wanted to bring a rover to Mars for the first time. However, the landing failed and the rover crashed. The landing of a second Soviet rover succeeded in the same year, but the radio link broke shortly afterwards. It was not until 1997 that NASA was able to successfully set a vehicle on the surface of Mars for the first time with Sojourner. In 2004, NASA brought two rovers to Mars at the same time. One of them was active for around six years, the other even 14 years. Curiosity followed in 2012 and is still doing its laps on Mars today.
After that, it was quiet for a while about new Mars rovers, until two companions, Perseverance and Zhurong, were lowered onto the surface of Mars this year. But they shouldn’t stay alone: With the Exomars rover, the European space agency Esa, together with the Russian space agency Roskosmos, wants to bring another rover to Mars in 2022.
