"The last 90 days were a milestone, a complete success," said Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China's first Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1.
The Zhurong rover reached its initial working target of 90 days on Mars, approximately 92 days on Earth, on August 15.
"So far the orbiter is in good condition. The rover is also moving steadily ahead. It will go farther to continue exploration," Zhang said.
Over the past three months, Zhurong has traveled nearly 889 meters on the surface of the red planet in China's first inter-planetary survey.
A photo captured by a rear camera on Zhurong rover shows its trails as the rover moves across the terrain on Mars. /China National Space Administration
Researchers said the Mars mission has helped them learn more about the past and present of the desolate planet. Providing precious data and experience, China's Mars exploration is expected to pave the way for the country's deep-space expeditions in the future.
The mission has so far collected over 420 gigabytes of data from both the rover and the orbiter, including visuals of land features, analysis of soil samples and readings of the atmosphere on Mars.
A map shows Zhurong rover's route and movements on the surface of Mars over the past three months. /Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center
"We have a better understanding of the atmosphere on Mars now. Normally we believe temperatures on the planet are around -60 to -50 degrees Celsius," said Liu Jianjun, chief designer of the ground application system of the Tianwen-1 probe. "At this time of the year, the readings have been around -20 to -10 degrees at noon."
As the orbiter and rover continue transferring data, in the near future, Chinese scientists may receive information from Mars, which is 400 million kilometers away, every month. But before that, the machines have to go through a month-long period, known as the "transit."
"Starting mid-September, the sun will go between Mars and Earth. That's when the two planets will be farthest apart. Radiation from the sun will affect radio communication of both the rover and the orbiter. So we may not be able to send or receive signals," said Sun Zezhou, head designer of Tianwen-1 probe.
Experts said they are confident that the rover and orbiter can pull through the solar outage in self-management mode before resuming signals in early November.
China's Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020.