China’s space agency released some spectacular video footage of ‘selfie’ cameras aboard the country’s Tianwen 1 spacecraft when it braked in orbit around Mars on February 10.
One of the videos shows Tianwen 1’s directional antenna shaking from vibrations caused by the spacecraft’s main engine, which took 15 minutes to slow down the probe to be caught by the gravity of Mars in orbit.
Another clip from another camera is aimed at one of the spacecraft’s two power-generating solar wings.
These time-lapse videos of the Chinese Tianwen 1 mission show the vessel’s arrival on February 10 at Mars.
The first track shows vibrations of Tianwen 1’s main engine on the probe’s directional antennas during the critical orbit input maneuver.
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– Space Fly Now (@SpaceflightNow) 15 February 2021
The Mars horizon, with the planet’s razor-sharp atmosphere, is visible in black-and-white views. The time-lapse videos also show Mars surface features, such as mountains and craters, as Tianwen 1 moved just a few hundred kilometers across the Red Planet.
The China National Space Administration released the videos on its website and via the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
The Tianwen 1 probe is China’s first spacecraft to reach Mars. The ambitious mission consists of three spacecraft, with an orbit, lander and rover traveling together for the seven-month journey to the Red Planet.
Tianwen 1 was launched in July last year on a Long March 5 rocket, the most powerful launcher in China’s stock. Since arriving at Mars last week, Tianwen has been maneuvering 1 from an equatorial orbit into a polar orbit with another large firing of its 674-pound main engine.
The Chinese space agency said the orbital adaptation fire, also called an aircraft change maneuver, occurred on Monday around 09:00 GMT (04:00 EST) to place Tianwen 1 spacecraft in a polar orbit with a periapsis, or low altitude, of 265 kilometers (265 kilometers). ) above Mars.
Chinese officials said the mission would adjust additional ways to orbit before starting to descend to the Red Planet in May or June for the separation of Tianwen 1’s lander and rover.
Read our previous story for details on the mission.
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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @ StephenClark1.