Zhurong

GS PAPER III: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Context: China’s first Mars rover named Zhurong after a traditional fire god.

About Chinese space plans

• Tianwen-1's goals include analysing and mapping the Martian surface and geology, looking for water ice and studying the climate and surface environment.
• The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.
• It is part of Chinese space plans that include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon.
• China in 2019 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 since the 1970s.
• China would become the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a robot rover on Mars.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/chinas-first-mars-rover-named-zhurong/article34406877.ece?homepage=true