Chinese rover takes first ride on Mars

Chinese rover Zhurong, named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, drove down the ramp of the lander onto the surface of Mars at 10:40 am Beijing time (0240 GMT), as per the rover’s official Chinese social media account.

China this month joined the United States as the only nation to deploy land vehicles on Mars. The former Soviet Union landed a craft in 1971, but it lost communication seconds later.

The 240-kg (530-pound) Zhurong, which has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution topography camera will study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere.

Powered by solar energy, Zhurong will also look for signs of ancient life, including any subsurface water and ice, using ground-penetrating radar during its 90-day exploration of the Martian surface.

"The slow progress of the rover was due to the limited understanding of the Martian environment, so a relatively conservative working the mode was specially designed," Jia Yang, an engineer involved in the mission, told China Space News.

The rover is covered by nano-aerogel plates to protect its body from the cold.