The HiRISE cam aboard NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this photo of Chinas Zhurong Mars rover (bottom) and its landing platform on June 11, 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona) Chinas first-ever Mars rover was on the relocation earlier this month, imagery by a NASA spacecraft shows.The rover, called Zhurong, becomes part of Tianwen-1, Chinas first fully homegrown Red Planet mission, which got here in orbit around Mars in February. Zhurong separated from the Tianwen-1 orbiter on May 14 and touched down on the huge plain Utopia Planitia a couple of hours later.NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) photographed Zhurong on June 6 using its HiRISE (” High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment”) electronic camera, which can resolving functions as little as a coffee table on the red dirt far below. Related: Chinas Tianwen-1 Mars mission in photosOn Wednesday (June 23), the HiRISE team released a 2nd image of Zhurong taken on June 11, which reveals the rover and its tracks extending noticeably farther away from the objectives landing platform. ” The landing website stays distinctly colored from elimination of Martian dust during landing, and movement of the Zhurong rover toward the south can be seen when comparing the two images,” HiRISE group members composed in a description of the photo.MRO has actually been circling around Mars because 2006, studying the planets geology and environment, hunting for indications of water ice, hunting out excellent possible landing websites for future objectives (both crewed and robotic) and serving as an interactions relay in between Mars rovers and landers and their controllers on Earth.As the Zhurong images reveal, MRO also keeps tabs on the Red Planets surface area robotics from time to time. For many years, HiRISE has photographed NASAs Phoenix and InSight landers and the companys Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance rovers– and Zhurong as well.The electronic camera even handled to record Perseverances legendary landing sequence on Feb. 18 of this year, photographing the rovers spacecraft coming down through the Red Planet skies under its big supersonic parachute.Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; shown by Karl Tate), a book about the look for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook..

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