91Èȱ¬

China has released footage of its Mars rover driving across the planet's surface.

The Zhurong landed on the planet in May, and images from the China National Space Agency (CNSA) show its touchdown as well as images of it driving around.

The robot placed a wireless camera on the ground to capture the footage of it exploring a region known as Utopia Planitia.

So far, Zhurong has reportedly driven 236m in 42 Mars sols (as of 27 June). A sol is a Martian day. It lasts slightly longer than an Earth day, at 24 hours and 39 minutes.

"The orbiter and the Mars rover are in good working condition, reporting safely from Mars," said a statement.

Scientists hope there is plenty more to come from the robot. It has been designed to work for around 90 Martian days.

The craft weighs in at about 240kg - about half the wieght of a polar bear. It has a tall mast poking out of the top which carries cameras to take pictures, and helps the robot find its way around the planet.

It is also carrying five further instruments to investigate the make up of the rocks and do things like measure the weather on Mars' surface.

The is also a laser on Zhurong to help it work out what is inside rocks it finds, while there is a radar to find water-ice under the planet's surface.

Zhurong is the third active rover on Mars' surface.

It joins America's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Curiosity has been roaming about on Mars since 2012, while Perseverance arrived on the planet in February, a couple of month's before it's Chinese counterpart.