China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft decorated its orbit around Mars to allow the spacecraft to analyze the selected landing site on the Red Planet.
Following the burn, which occurred on Tuesday (February 23), Tianwen-1 is now able to begin imaging and collecting data on primary and backup landings for the mission, which will attempt to touch in May or June.
Tianwen-1, China’s first independent interplanetary mission, consists of an orbit and rover that were in a Mars orbit as a single spacecraft since February 10. The last combustion of the engine, at 17:29 EST Tuesday (2229 GMT, 06:29 Beijing time), carried out during the closest approach of the spacecraft to Mars, caused the apoapsis, or the farthest point of the planet, significantly reduced.
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Tianwen-1’s new ‘orbit’ takes the spacecraft about 280 km (170 kilometers) to Mars and up to 59 000 km (37 000 miles).
The mission lane is now shooting up its camera and science cargo loads and preparing it to assess the landscape and dust conditions at the country primary landing site, located in an area of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the Red Planet.
With the “parking lane”, the lane can capture sharp images of the targeted landing site, which could potentially bring back photos with a resolution of 20 centimeters (50 centimeters) per pixel.
Tianwen-1 will photograph the region on several occasions to evaluate the topography and dust conditions in the landing zone, said Tan Zhiyun, deputy chief designer of the Mars probe at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). CCTV +. “We will find out all this information in preparation for a safe landing,” Tan said.
Each orbit takes about two Earth days to complete, so China could capture and release the probe’s first high-resolution images of the Martian surface in the next few days.
Understanding local conditions is also very important for the operation of the mission’s approximately 530 lbs. (240 kilograms) solar power worker. Martian dust can pose major threats to solar-powered spacecraft on the surface; NASA’s Opportunity Rover Lose contact with the earth in 2018 during such a global dust storm.
The Tianwen-1 rover is contained in an air cap attached to the track. This conical structure will protect and slow down the rover during its fiery, hypersonic access to the Martian atmosphere at the start of the landing attempt. A supersonic parachute will further decelerate the car before retropropulsion engines provide the final delay for the soft landing.
The wanderer carries scientific payloads to investigate the surface soil properties and mineral composition and to search for potential water ice with a soil penetrating radar. The Rover is designed for 90 Mars sols (92 Earth Days), with the Tianwen-1 orbit to transmit communications and data between the Rover and the Earth. The orbit is designed to operate a total of one Mars year, or about 687 Earth days.
Tianwen-1 is one of three missions that Mars has just reached. Tianwen-1 entered orbit a day after the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe achieved the same feat and a week before the spectacular landing of NASA’s Perseverance Rover.
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