China’s space agency publishes video footage two days after its Mars probe successfully entered the orbit of the red planet.
China’s space agency has released video footage of its spacecraft orbiting Mars, two days after it successfully entered the planet’s orbit in Beijing’s latest ambitious spacecraft.
In the video, published by the state broadcaster CCTV, the surface of the planet is seen from a pitch black sky against the outside of Tianwen-1, which entered the orbit of the Red Planet on Wednesday.
White craters are visible on the planet’s surface, which fades from white to black through the video as the probe flies during one Mars day, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 5000 kilogram (five tons) Tianwen-1 – which translates to ‘Questions to Heaven’ – features a Mars orbit, a lander and a solar-powered rover launched in southern China last year.
This is the final step in Beijing’s space program, which aims to establish a manned space station by 2022 and eventually place an astronaut on the moon, opening a new extraterrestrial arena for competition between the US and China. has.
Signs of past life
Tianwen-1 was launched at about the same time as a rival U.S. mission and is expected to hit the planet’s surface in May.
Its success comes the same week as the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe also successfully entered the orbit of Mars – making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
Chinese scientists hope to land a 240-kilogram (529-pound) robber in Utopia in May, a huge impact basin on Mars. The orbit will last for a Mars year.
For the three-month study of the earth and the planet’s atmosphere, the mission will take pictures, map maps and look for signs of past life.
The probe has already returned its first image of Mars – a black-and-white photograph with geological features, including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a large gorge on the Martian surface.
Mars was a challenging target, with most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, eventually failing.
NASA’s perseverance, which will hit the Red Planet on February 18, becomes the fifth traveler to complete the journey since 1997 – and all have been American so far.