FILE: In Space - Date Unknown (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Photos of inspection area of China's Mars rover Zhurong taken by high-resolution camera on Tianwen-1 orbiter

FILE: Mars - Jan 22, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Photo of Zhurong rover covered by sand, dust

FILE: Mars - May 19, 2021 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Photo of Zhurong rover not covered by sand, dust

FILE: Mars - Jan 22, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Photos of Zhurong rover covered by sand, dust

FILE: In Space - Jan 22, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Photos of Mars surface (74.0° N, 30.7° E at center of image)

FILE: In Space - Feb 10, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Photos of Mars surface (72.9° N, 37.8° E at center of image)

FILE: In Space - March 24, 2021 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Photos of Mars surface (24.6° N, 110.2°E at center of image)

FILE: In Space - Jan 30, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Photos of Mars surface (24.4° N, 107.4° E at center of image)

FILE: In Space - March 7, 2022 (China National Space Administration - No access Chinese mainland)
9. Photos of NASA's Perseverance rover shot by Tianwen-1 orbiter

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday released a number of images of Mars captured by the Tianwen-1 orbiter and the Zhurong rover.

As of Thursday, the Zhurong rover has been working on the surface of Mars for 306 Martian days, traveling a total of 1,784 meters. The Tianwen-1 orbiter has been in orbit for 609 days and is 277 million kilometers away from the Earth. The two space vehicles are currently operating normally.

The high-resolution camera on the Tianwen-1 orbiter captured a 0.5 meter-resolution image of the inspection area of Zhurong rover and its wheel tracks can be clearly seen on it.

The Zhurong rover also sent back selfies from the surface of Mars. Compared with the photos taken just after landing, a more recent photo shows a thin layer of dust accumulates on the surface of the rover.

According to the telemetry data of the rover, the power generation efficiency of the solar wings is affected to a certain extent, but the power is still sufficient.

The solar wings of the Mars rover were specially designed to cope with the dust coverage and various measures can be taken to deal with the reduction of power generation efficiency caused by the sand and dust. So far there is no need to invoke the back-up plans as the power is sufficient to support the rover to continue with the exploration.

The medium-resolution camera on the Tianwen-1 orbiter recorded the wind and sand activity in the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere of Mars. The footage suggests that from late January this year, the area north of 60° north latitude on Mars began to have obvious sandstorms and a local sandstorm occurred in this area in February this year, and typical features on the ground were covered by a large amount of sand and dust, making it difficult to distinguish.

At present, autumn is falling on the northern hemisphere of Mars. According to the previous reports, dusty weather is frequent in autumn on Mars. So far the medium-resolution images taken by Tianwen-1 orbiter show that no obvious dusty weather has been observed in the inspection area of Zhurong rover.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter has continued to carry out remote sensing exploration of Mars. On March 7 this year, while imaging the Jezero crater, Tianwen-1 orbiter captured the image of the American Perseverance rover, which was located about 200 meters southeast of its landing site.