What was the mass of China's Zhurong rover?

China’s Zhurong rover had a mass of 240 kilograms. This figure is its launch mass, the standard mass reported for the rover in mission summaries.

Zhurong was part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission, which launched on July 23, 2020, and landed in Mars’s Utopia Planitia on May 14, 2021. The rover was deployed from its lander on May 22, becoming China’s first rover to operate on Mars.

The 240-kilogram figure applies to Zhurong itself, not the complete Tianwen-1 spacecraft, lander, or launch vehicle. That distinction matters because the full Mars mission was vastly heavier. Zhurong carried six scientific instruments, including ground-penetrating radar, a magnetometer, cameras, and a weather station.

Zhurong was designed for a 90-sol mission but operated for more than 347 sols before entering hibernation during the Martian winter and a major dust storm. It ultimately failed to resume communications, likely because dust reduced the sunlight reaching its solar panels.