Beijing: The Chinese Mars probe codenamed Tianwen-1 and the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft has successfully performed a test of in-orbit relay communication.

The communication lasted 10 minutes when China’s Mars rover Zhurong sent test data to Mars Express over a distance of approximately 4,000 Km.

Data analysis results show that the relay communication equipment interfaces of Zhurong and Mars Express match and conform to international standards, and the contents of the transmitted data are complete and correct.

The teams of the Chinese probe and the European Space Agency’s spacecraft will undertake further cooperation in scientific data relay communication.

Moreover, as of Wednesday 1 December 2021, Zhurong has worked on Mars for 196 Martian days. It has travelled 1,297 meters and obtained about 10 gigabytes of data, the Xinhua News Agency reported.