The Chinese Mars orbiter Tianwen-1 has taken a series of “selfies” taken by a small camera launched into orbit, as the China National Space Administration has released four new photos, showing Tianwen-1 next to the red planet, to mark the New Year.
Tianwen-1 . orbiter
One of these images shows a complete view of Tianwen-1 in space with the north pole of the red planet in the background, while the other shows a great close-up of its golden reflective body and solar antenna wing.
To take the photos, Tianwen-1 abandoned one of its small cameras, which transmitted the footage via Wi-Fi.
Another image shows a stunning close-up of the ice caps on the north pole of Mars, complete with a distinctive pattern of snowy swirls.
First full image of Tianwen
The first image, the first complete image of the orbiter, shows the probe’s gold body and a silver object directly below it.
This silver body is the antenna for high-speed data communication with the ground.
The second image shows a partial close-up of the orbiter, while the third image shows the best view of the planet’s ice vortexes.
Ice on Mars
Ice on Mars has been found at the polar caps and below the surface at other locations on the planet, but unlike ice at Earth’s poles, Mars “ice” consists of dry ice, solid carbon dioxide and water in the form of ice.
The new fourth image shows the planet Mars, as taken by the Zurong rover.
The Chinese expedition was called Tianwen-1, Questions to Heaven, in reference to an ancient Chinese poem containing verses about the universe.
Chinese space agency
The Chinese space agency said Tianwen-1, which was launched from Earth nearly 18 months ago, is now about 350 million kilometers from Earth.
China successfully launched Tianwen-1 on July 23, 2020, aboard a Long March 5 Y-4 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China’s southern Hainan Island province.
The spacecraft covered a total of 475 million kilometers, and carried out several maneuvers on the path before entering Mars’ orbit on February 10, 2021.
Atmosphere of Mars
After more than three months of preparations, a lander launched by the probe made a very difficult landing and landed on Mars on May 14, 2021.
Countries that succeeded in landing on Mars
This achievement made China the second country, after the United States, to land on Mars.
Tianwen-1 is the name of the robotic spacecraft to Mars which actually consists of six separate pieces of equipment, an orbiter, two deployable cameras, a probe, a remote camera, and the Zurong rover.
The orbiter and its deployable cameras orbited the planet in space, while the Gurong rover descended from the lander on the planet’s surface on May 22, about a week after the probe landed.
Source: Daily Mail
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