Released on July 23, 2020, Tianwen 1 and Zhurong, along with a lander, reached Mars orbit on February 10, 2021. the orbiter has been operating for nearly 800 days. The rover and lander reached its surface Mars three months later, on May 14, and the rover has so far traveled 6,302 feet (1,921 meters). Now, reports CGTN that CNSA announced that the orbiter and rover sent back 1,480 gigabytes of raw data — some of which supports the hypothesis that an ancient ocean once existed on Utopia Planitia, the vast Martian plain Zhurong is exploring. Scientists analyzing the data discovered the presence of hydrated minerals in the “hard crust,” a hard mineral layer at the top of the soil that usually forms due to the evaporation of groundwater. The scientists claim that this finding proves that there was “significant liquid water activity” in the region at some point in the past billion years. They also determined “that Martian soil has high bearing strength and low friction parameters,” which would indicate erosion by wind, water, or both. The hypothesis that there was once an ocean of liquid water on Mars is not new – recent climate simulations have also suggested the existence of such an ocean. And, in fact, scientists even discovered a huge one underground ice deposit under Utopia Planitia years before Zhurong’s arrival. Both Tianwen 1 and Zhurong will continue to explore Mars for water-related evidence, but the two robots will also conduct other surveys. CNSA said its scientists are studying “the relationship between the density of rocks on the Martian surface and the degree of surface erosion, the distribution of ions and neutral particles in the near-Mars space environment, and the Martian gravity field.” on CGTN. Studies based on data from Tianwen 1 and Zhurong have already been published in Astronomy of Nature, (opens in new tab) Geoscience of nature (opens in a new tab) and Advances in Sciencenoted the CNSA. Follow Stefanie Waldek on Twitter @StefanieWaldek. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and up Facebook.
