China on Mars: Zhurong rover returns first pictures

China has released the first pictures taken by its Zhurong rover on Mars.

The forward view shows the landscape ahead of the robot as it sits on its landing platform; the rear-looking image reveals Zhurong's solar panels.

The rover touched down on the Red Planet early on Sunday, Beijing time.

In doing so, it made China only the second nation - after America - to successfully put a probe on the surface of Mars and operate it for a significant length of time.

Chinese scientists hope get at least 90 Martian days of service out of the six-wheeled robot at its location on Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in the planet's northern hemisphere.China's National Space Administration (CNSA) posted the pictures on its website. There are even a couple of short videos that record the moment the rover's aeroshell - the capsule it used to enter the Martian atmosphere - departs the Tianwen-1 orbiter, the satellite that carried the rover from Earth.

The surface imagery tells us that critical hardware deployments after landing were completed cleanly.

These deployments included the unfurling of the solar arrays to provide power to the robot; the release of the antenna to communicate with Tianwen-1, and onwards with controllers back in China; and the extension of the ramp down which Zhurong will soon roll to begin its mobile mission.Zhurong looks a lot like the US space agency's (Nasa) Spirit and Opportunity vehicles from the 2000s.

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It weighs some 240kg. A tall mast carries cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments will investigate the mineralogy of local rocks and the general nature of the environment, including the weather.

Like the current American rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance), Zhurong has a laser tool to zap rocks to assess their chemistry. It also has a radar to look for sub-surface water-ice - a capability its American cousins don't share.Utopia Planitia is where Nasa landed its Viking-2 mission in 1976.

It's a colossal basin - more than 3,000km across - that was formed by an impact early in Mars' history.

There is some evidence pointing to it having held an ocean long ago.

Remote sensing by satellites indicates there are significant stores of ice at depth.America put down the much larger (one tonne) Perseverance robot in February.

Europe, which has twice failed with landing attempts, will send a rover called Rosalind Franklin to Mars next year (in a joint project with the Russians).

Read More : India coronavirus: Tracing a family’s journey to save a life

Anoop Saxena, 59, was one of hundreds of thousands of Indians who fell sick with Covid at the end of April.

And like so many, the father from Ghaziabad city in northern India became so sick he needed to be treated in a hospital.

But India's hospitals have been overwhelmed, and beds and oxygen were all in short supply at the start of May - despite officials in Uttar Pradesh state, where Ghaziabad is located, continuing to insist there was no shortage either.

What followed over the next few days was just one example of a family's desperate search for help, wherever they could find it. There are many thousands more across India, just like this.

Here, we have recreated the Saxena family's battle.No test available
Anoop has high fever on 29 April and the doctor asks him to get tested for Covid-19. The family tries to book a slot for home collection but the labs refuse, saying they don't have the manpower to provide the service.The family takes him to a public hospital. The queue is long, and Anoop's son Tushar wishes they could push ahead. But everyone in front of them is so sick.

Two hours later, when Anoop faints in the line, they decide to bring him home.Anoop wakes on Saturday morning and tells his family that he is having difficulty breathing. The family gets a nebuliser - a small medical device for delivering a fine spray of a drug to patients - to help clear his airway.

It helps briefly but his oxygen levels continue to drop. It's 10am, and the doctor advises Anoop needs to be admitted to a hospital. The family tries to arrange an ambulance but none is available and they don't own a car. They ask a cousin, who lives in the neighbouring district of Hapur, to bring his car to Ghaziabad - a journey of 27km (17 miles).

The cousin arrives at Anoop's home in Akash Nagar at 2pm, but there is no sign of a hospital bed. It's now 4pm, they decide to take him to Gurdwara (Sikh temple) Sri Guru Singh Sabha where he is given oxygen from a cylinder. The family thanks the temple for running the free service for struggling families.His oxygen level becomes stable at the gurdwara but volunteers suggest that he should be taken to a hospital as they can't keep him there indefinitely. Tushar begs them to keep his father at the temple, but knows in his heart he must find a hospital bed.

The family takes him to state-run MMG hospital. After spending an hour, they realise that he won't get a bed anytime soon.It's 8pm, the family is still at the hospital. Tushar calls his brother, who is at home, and tells him to go to the oxygen plant in the Lal Kuan area to look for a cylinder.

His brother joins a long queue at the plant, deciding to wait for his turn. Tushar is calling his brother every few minutes. He knows not finding an oxygen cylinder or a hospital bed will mean not surviving the night.

Tushar brings his father home. He goes out to buy 25 small oxygen cans to help Anoop breathe. These cans give him small doses of oxygen at regular intervals but can't provide continuous supply. Each can costs 2,500 rupees [$34; £24]. They usually go for less than 1,000 rupees. This a big sum for the middle-class family like the Saxenas, but they have no choice.

Tushar tries to keep his father stable with the cans, while waiting for his brother to return with a oxygen cylinder.

At 1am, his brother returns without a cylinder because the plant closed before his turn could come. They continue to use the cans and Anoop slowly stabilises.