China's Zhurong Mars rover completes mission

The primary mission life of China's Zhurong Mars rover comes to an end this weekend, although the vehicle could operate well beyond that.

Zhurong was designed with a life-expectancy of three months. Its primary mission was searching for signs of water-ice, monitoring weather, and studying surface composition on Mars.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter, which provides the mission's telecom link, is now scheduled to alter its orbit to begin remote sensing of the surface and assessing the Mars atmosphere. Its mission life-expectancy is at least a year.

Beijing Mission Control reports both the rover and orbiter are in good condition and functioning well.

China's Yutu-2 rover on the far side of the Moon had a similar three-month life-expectancy. It has been operating for more than two and a half years, though it has travelled a shorter distance than Zhurong. Meanwhile, some 400 million kilometers closer to home, China is preparing the next mission to its space station.

After the current three-month crewed mission ends in September, a cargo vessel will be launched to provision the space station for a six-month crewed mission scheduled for launch in October.

(Source: CGTN)