China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft has shortened its orbit around Mars so that the spacecraft can analyze the chosen landing area on the red planet.
Following the fire, which occurred on Tuesday (Feb. 23), Tianwen-1 is now able to begin imaging and collecting data on primary and backup landing sites for the mission’s rover, which will attempt to land in May or June.
Tianwen-1, China’s first independent interplanetary mission, consists of an orbiter and a rover, orbiting Mars as a single spacecraft since February 10The last engine combustion, Tuesday at 5:29 PM EST (2229 GMT, 6:29 AM Beijing time Wednesday), performed during the spacecraft’s closest approach to Mars, reduced apoapsis, or farthest point from the planet , significantly.
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Tianwen-1’s new “parking orbit” takes the spacecraft as close as 170 miles (280 kilometers) to Mars and as much as 37,000 miles (59,000 km).
The mission orbiter now fires its camera and scientific payloads, preparing to explore the landscape and dust conditions at the primary landing site, located in an area of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the Red Planet.
The “parking orbit” allows the orbiter to take sharp images of the intended landing site, potentially returning images at a resolution of 20 inches (50 centimeters) per pixel.
Tianwen-1 will photograph the region several times 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 retrieve all this information in preparation for a safe landing,” said Tan.
Each orbit takes about two Earth days to complete, so China may be able to capture and release the probe’s first high-resolution images of the surface of Mars over the next few days.
Understanding the local conditions is also very important to the operation of the approximately 530-pound mission. (240 kilograms) solar-powered rover. Mars dust can be a major threat to solar-powered spacecraft on the surface; NASA’s Opportunity Rover lost contact with Earth in 2018 during such a global dust storm.
The Tianwen-1 rover is housed in an aeroshell attached to the orbiter. This conical structure will both protect and slow the rover during its fiery, hypersonic entry into the Martian atmosphere at the start of the landing attempt. A supersonic parachute will further slow the rover before retropropulsion engines provide the final soft landing delay.
The robber carries scientific payloads investigate the soil characteristics and the mineral composition of the surface and search for potential water ice with a ground-penetrating radar. The rover is designed to use 90 Marches (92 Earth days), with the Tianwen-1 orbiter serving to transmit communication and data between the rover and Earth. The orbiter is designed to operate for a total of one Mars year or about 687 Earth days.
Tianwen-1 is one of three missions that just reached Mars. Tianwen-1 entered orbit a day after the United Arab Emirates Hope probe performed the same performance and a week before the spectacular landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover.
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