The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) has said the Chinese Tianwen-1 Mars orbit and orbit will travel to the Red Planet and prepare to arrive on February 10.
Tianwen-1 has been in space for almost 24 weeks and according to CNSA on January 3, Beijing was about 81 million kilometers from Earth and 8.15 million kilometers from Mars on January 3, Beijing time.
Since all systems are operating normally, the spacecraft will enter Mars’ orbit on February 10, according to the Chinese CCTV news network. The five-ton spacecraft will burn its engines to slow it down enough to be captured by Mars’ gravity.
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Tianwen-1 will be about 190 million kilometers from Earth when the probe arrives in orbit around Mars, after a journey of about 292 million miles (470 million km), says CNSA.
The large distance between Earth and Tianwen-1 means a delay in the communication speed of light speed of about 10 minutes, so real-time control of the spacecraft is not possible. The spacecraft must therefore carry out instructions itself.
Li Zhencai, deputy commander of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe project with the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which made the spacecraft, told Chinese media that preparations for the inner orbit of Mars are underway.
“We plan to complete all the assignments and the joint exercise with the Beijing Aerospace Control Center before January 24,” Li said in a CCTV interview.
Li said a fourth way to perform the orbit correction is to ensure that the spacecraft is on course to enter the Mars orbit.
After entering its orbit, Tianwen-1 will begin preparing for a mission landing attempt. The orbit will begin to depict the candidate’s main landing site in the large impact basin Utopia Planitia, south of NASA’s Viking 2 landing site.
However, it will take time to get ready for the attempt, with CNSA saying the landing will only take place in May.
If it can hold the landing that is yet to be mentioned, about 530 lbs. (240 kilograms) solar Tianwen-1 rover will investigate the surface soil properties and potential distribution of water ice with its Subsurface Exploration Radar instrument. The Mars Rover will also analyze the composition of the surface material and the properties of the Mars climate and the environment on the surface.
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Tianwen-1 was launched in July 2020. Since then, he has executed three ways of correcting the trajectory to fine-tune his course, along with a larger so-called deep-spatial maneuver to adjust his trajectory.
Tianwen-1 is one of three spacecraft making their final approaches to the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates’ Hope Mars probe will reach Mars a day before Tianwen-1, on 9 February. NASA’s Perseverance Rover will make its landing attempt on 18 February.
China landed on the moon three times, with Chang’e 3 in 2013, Chang’e 4 on the other side in 2019 and Chang’e 5 in December last year.
However, Tianwen-1 is China’s first independent interplanetary mission, and the landing on Mars, with its thin atmosphere, distance and other gravitational field, presents new and greater challenges.
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