China’s Mars probe, Tianwen-1, has been hanging in a parking lot in Mars for almost two months now, preparing for its landing in May.
But it does not just sit in an orbit around its antennas. The probe explores the planet, orbits closer, looks at the chosen landing site of the mission, and sends amazing images of our dusty planet friend.
On March 16 and March 18, the spacecraft took two panoramic photos with its medium-resolution camera of a crescent-like Mars, from a distance of about 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles), seen from the outside, with the sun behind it.
(CNSA)
From that distance, surface features are visible, different colors streak across the face of Mars, as well as a dull hazy outline – the planet’s thin but dusty atmosphere is shrouded like a fine shell.
Mars is the planet most visited in the solar system, but there are still many that we do not yet know. With eight orbits currently in operation (including Tianwen-1 and the UAE’s Hope Orbit, which also arrived in February this year), as well as two robbers and one lander, new discoveries are constantly being made.
Tianwen-1 has a lander and rover that will hit the Utopia Planitia, inside the Utopia Impact Basin on the Northern Hemisphere of Mars. It is a large lava plain, under which large amounts of ice have been found, and which, according to scientists, was once an ocean before Mars lost its liquid surface water.
Exploring this region, the China National Space Administration believes, could provide important clues that could help us compile even more of the planet’s mysterious history.
According to the speech of Chi Wang of the Chinese Academy of Scientists at Space Science Week 2021, a date has not yet been set for the landing, but it is planned for mid-May.
Once the rover has descended, the orbit will continue to orbit the planet, make its own observations and act as a communication relay between Earth and Mars.
Hopefully we will see many more such photos in the coming years.