What is the name of the Chinese Mars rover that landed in 2021?

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The Chinese Mars rover that landed in 2021 was Zhurong.

Zhurong was part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission, which launched on July 23, 2020. The spacecraft entered orbit around Mars in February 2021 before its lander and rover descended toward Utopia Planitia, a broad plain in Mars’s northern hemisphere. The landing occurred on May 14, 2021, making China the second nation to operate a fully successful rover on Mars, after the United States.

The rover was named after Zhurong, a traditional Chinese god associated with fire. It carried cameras and instruments for studying the Martian landscape, soil, atmosphere, magnetic environment, and subsurface structure. Zhurong left its landing platform on May 22, 2021, and began traveling across the surface.

A frequent mix-up is Tianwen-1: that is the name of the overall mission, not the rover. Chang’e and Yutu belong to China’s lunar exploration program, while Zhurong was China’s first rover on Mars.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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