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China’s Mars probe captures its first image of red planet
- The Tianwen-1 took the black-and-white picture at a distance of 2.2 million km (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to the Chinese space agency
- The probe is now half that distance from the planet after 197 days, and its systems are in good condition
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China’s maiden space exploration mission to Mars has captured its first image of the red planet, the space agency said on Friday, some six months after the probe left Earth.
The uncrewed Tianwen-1 took the picture at a distance of around 2.2 million km (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), which supplied a black-and-white image.
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China readies massive antenna as Tianwen-1 Mars mission nears orbit around red planet
China readies massive antenna as Tianwen-1 Mars mission nears orbit around red planet
The probe is now only half that distance away from Mars and around 184 million km (114 million miles) from Earth after 197 days of the mission, the CNSA said in a statement, adding that its systems were in good condition.
The Tianwen-1 was launched in July from China’s southern Hainan island and expected to reach the orbit of Mars this month.
In May, it will try to land in Utopia Planitia, a plain in the northern hemisphere, and deploy a rover to explore for 90 days.
If successful, the Tianwen-1 will make China the first country to orbit, land and deploy a rover in its inaugural mission to Mars, further boosting China’s space credentials after it last year became the first nation to bring back samples from the moon since the 1970s.
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