China's Zhurong Mars rover takes a selfie

The robot, which landed in May, positioned a wireless camera on the ground and then rolled back a short distance to take the snap.

Visible is the ramp down which Zhurong had to drive to get on to the surface; and the tracks it left in the dust as it turned around.

A third picture looks out to the horizon from the landing site. This region is known as Utopia Planitia, a vast terrain in Mars' northern hemisphere.

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 it shares with Perseverance.

On Thursday, the US University of Arizona released a colour picture of Zhurong taken from orbit. The university's camera, called HiRise, is mounted on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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