A Second Nation Is Now "Six-Wheeling" -- On Mars: China's Zhurong Rover, Under Solar / Electric Power...

Overnight, China released some fish-eye lens black and white images, so I won't re-imagine them, but they do prove that the rover has driven down the ramp, off the landing platform -- and is under its own power on a jaunt -- doing interplanetary science now -- at the vast Utopia Planitia Martian impact crater.

Kudos, to all the scientists and engineers at CNSA!

In fact China has set down about 2,500 miles away from where NASA's Viking 2 rests, from 1976, now in stonily frigid. . . silence. So it is not likely Zhurong will drive over, to scavenge for parts. Heh -- but it does make for a second nation, wheel-jacking -- on Barsoom. Here's a bit from CNN, on the latest:

. . .China's Zhurong rover left its landing platform and drove on the surface of Mars on Saturday, state media reported -- making the country only the second after the US to land and operate a rover on the red planet.

The six-wheel solar-powered rover, which weighs about 240 kilograms (529 pounds), touched down on Mars on May 15. Its mission is intended to last three months, the Chinese government said, during which time it will search for signs or evidence of ancient life on Mars' surface.

Zhurong. . . landed in the red planet's Utopia Planitia region. . . .

We are thrilled to see this -- space science, ever advancing. And increasingly, it is clear (despite what Mr. Musk might claim) that we may send robots to do the work, and avoid both the danger of losing human lives for this interplanetary science to advance, and the expense of food / water and oxygen needed, to get them there -- and safely back.

Onward, grinning at another warm Saturday spring morning here -- bike's up, next!

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