China’s Zhurong rover takes first drive on Mars

China's remote-controlled rover, which landed on Mars a week ago, has driven down from its landing capsule to the surface of the planet.

This makes China the second country after the US to operate a rover there. 

The Zhurong rover is due to study the planet's surface soil and atmosphere. It will also look for signs of life, including any subsurface water or ice. 

China's Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, lander and rover, was launched in July last year.

The deputy chief commander of the mission, Zhang Yuhua, said the rover was designed to operate for 92 Earth days (or 90 Mars days, known as "sols" which are slightly longer than Earth days) and would share its data via the orbiter.