The Zhurong rover, sent to Mars as part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission, landed on the surface on May 15, 2021. The rover landed on a vast plain called Utopia Planitia in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The area was chosen because of its proximity to the so-called ancient coasts.
The rover traveled about 1.9 km south after landing, photographing rocks, dunes and impact craters, and collecting ground-penetrating radar data along the way.
Ground-based penetrating radar detects underground objects by sending electromagnetic pulses that bounce off underground structures. In Martian soil, the researchers saw several curved and sloping subsurface structures, which they identified as buried impact craters, as well as other inclined features with a less certain origin. They found no trace of water or ice in the first five meters of the soil.
This does not exclude the possibility of water deeper than eighty meters obtained using radar.
Source: Ferra
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