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China's Mars rover Zhurong has been operational on the red planet for 100 Earth days, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Monday.
The CNSA on the same day released a series of new images of the Mars mission.
A picture of China's Mars rover and the landing platform on Mars. A tiny picture of the 2022 Winter Games mascots is shown next to the Chinese national flag on the front of the landing platform. /China National Space Administration
It has traveled over 1,064 meters by the latest record, sending back gigabytes of raw data. In addition, the rover has taken pictures of the Martian landscape and of itself. It has even beckoned to the 2022 Winter Games in one of its widely popular selfies sent back over the last three months.
China's first Mars mission is a success as the mission completes the three-in-one task of orbiting, landing and roving. The rover will continue its service although it has reached its planned working target of 90 days.
The route of China's Mars rover Zhurong traveling on Mars. /Beijing Aerospace Control Center
The rover is still in "normal condition" and traveling south as planned, according to Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China's first Mars exploration mission. But the probe will suspend operation over mid-September to early November, about 50 days to wait out the period of sun outage when the communication is cut off.
"When signal recovers, we will update on its assignment," Zhang said.
A diagram of the solar transit as the sun comes between Earth and Mars. /China National Space Administration
Zhang said the gigabytes of raw data are now ready for decoding. "The data is available for the scientists to request for use," he said. "From data about the Martian underground structure to those about Martian weather, we expect authentic discoveries from our first-hand source material."
The chief designer also said the rover will stay on course and move further south to an area when ancient Martian sea and land meets, and that border area is expected to deliver some most anticipated stats and data.
The front and back of two gold coins and one silver coin commemorating Zhurong's 100 days of operation on Mars. /China National Space Administration
On Monday, a batch of gold coins was released to commemorate 100 days since Zhurong started operation on the Martian surface.
China's Tianwen-1 mission, comprised of an orbiter, lander, and rover, was launched on July 23, 2020.
The lander, carrying the rover with an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days or about three months of Earth days, touched down on May 15 in the southern part of Utopia Planitia of Mars.
The rover Zhurong had driven down from its landing platform to the Martian surface on May 22.
