A probe from China’s Tianwen-1 mission – which translates as ‘Questions in the Sky’ – is expected to land on Mars in May
The Chinese space agency released video footage of its spacecraft orbiting Mars on Friday, two days after it successfully entered the planet’s orbit in Beijing’s latest ambitious space mission.
In the video, published by state broadcaster CCTV, the planet’s surface is seen from a pitch-black sky against the outside of Tianwen-1, which entered Red Planet’s orbit on Wednesday.
White craters are visible on the planet’s surface, fading from white to black through the video as the probe flies over the course of a Mars day, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 – which translates as “Ask about Heaven” – includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover, and was launched from southern China last July.
It is the latest step in Beijing’s space program, which aims to establish a manned space station by 2022 and eventually put an astronaut on the moon, and has opened a new, alien arena for competition between the US and China.
Tianwen-1 launched around the same time as a rival US mission and is expected to land on the planet’s surface in May.
Success comes the same week that the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe also successfully entered Mars orbit – making history as the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
Fact file on China’s expedition to the Red Planet. The probe entered Mars orbit on February 10, according to state media
Chinese scientists hope to land a 240-kilogram rover in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars, in May. Its orbit will last a Martian year.
For the three-month study of the planet’s soil and atmosphere, the mission will take photos, make maps, and look for signs of past life.
The probe has already returned its first image of Mars – a black and white photo that showed geological features, including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a huge chunk of canyons on the surface of Mars.
Mars has proven to be a challenging target, with the most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, ending in failure.
NASA’s Perseverance, which will land on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, will become the fifth rover to complete the journey since 1997 – and so far they’ve all been American.
China’s space probe returns its first image of Mars
© 2021 AFP
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