China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft is expected to enter Mars orbit next month after traveling more than 400m km since its launch on July 23 last year.
The spacecraft has flown into space for 163 days and is currently about 8.3 m km from Mars, according to China’s National Space Administration.
The flight marks the start of the country’s independent planetary exploration mission.
“The probe flies faster and faster as it emerges from the influence of heliocentric gravity,” explained Li Zhencai, the project’s subcommander. “Currently, the speed is basically stable at about 22 km per second relative to Earth.”
This means that the probe covers about 1.8 km a day.
The probe consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
It is expected to touch Mars in May 2021, about three months after reaching the orbit of the red planet.
The distance between Mars and Earth changes periodically, from 50 million kilometers closer and 400 million kilometers to the farthest.