The National Space Administration of China (ANEC) published this Saturday four new images sent by the Tianwen-1 mission, the first in the Asian country to reach the surface of Mars, collects this Sunday the local newspaper ‘Diario del Pueblo’.
Two of the photos totally or partially show the mission’s orbiter, which aids in communications between the rover, on the Martian surface, and Earth.
The image showing the full body of the orbiter was taken by a camera launched from the spacecraft, the ANEC explained.
The other two images include one of the barren reddish Martian surface and another of the ice-covered north pole of the neighboring planet.
In the image of the surface of Mars, parts of the ‘Zhurong’ are seen, the mission’s rover from which the image was taken and which has already accumulated 224 days of work on the red planet and more than 1.4 kilometers traveled , according to ANEC.
At the limit of its life expectancy
The authorities explained that the scout vehicle it has “far exceeded” its life expectancy, which was estimated to be regarding three months.
The Tianwen-1 mission has obtained and transmitted to Earth a total of 540 gigabytes of data and its components, according to the ANEC statement, still “have power and are in good condition.”
Tianwen-1 traveled a total of 450 million kilometers before entering Martian orbit on February 10, according to ANEC.
The mission landed on the plain known as Utopia Planitia on May 15, making China the third country to do so, decades following the United States and the former Soviet Union succeeded.
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Tianwen-1 is China’s first exploration mission to Mars and the first in history to combine travel, entry into orbit and descent into a single mission.
Chinese scientists intend to find more evidence of the existence of water or ice on that planet, as well as to carry out research on the material composition of the surface of Mars or the characteristics of the climate.
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