The Chinese space agency publishes video images two days after the Mars spacecraft successfully entered the orbit of the red planet.
The Chinese space agency has released video footage of its spacecraft orbiting Mars, two days after it successfully entered orbit around the planet in Beijing’s latest ambitious space mission.
The video, released by state broadcaster CCTV, shows the surface of the planet coming out of sight from a black sky in front of the outside of the Tianwen-1, which entered the orbit of the red planet on Wednesday.
White craters are visible on the planet’s surface, which disappears from black to white through video as the probe flies over a Martian day, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 5,000-kilogram (five-ton) Tianwen-1, which translates as “Questions in the Sky,” includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover launched from southern China last July. .
It is the last step in Beijing’s space program, which aims to establish a manned space station in 2022 and finally put an astronaut on the moon and has opened a new alien field for competition between the US and China.
Signs of the past life
Tianwen-1 was launched at the same time as a rival US mission and is expected to touch the planet’s surface in May.
Its success comes the same week that the UAE Hope spacecraft also successfully entered Mars orbit, becoming the first interplanetary mission in the Arab world.
Chinese scientists expect to land a 240-kilogram (529-pound) rover in May in Utopia, a huge impact basin on Mars. Its orbiter will last a Martian year.
For the three-month study of the planet’s soil and atmosphere, the mission will take photos, map maps and look for signs of past life.
The spacecraft has already sent its first image of Mars, a black-and-white photo showing geological features such as the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, an extensive stretch of cannon on the Martian surface.
Mars has proven to be a challenging target, with most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, ending in failure.
NASA’s Perseverance, which is scheduled to touch the red planet on February 18, will become the fifth rover to complete the trip since 1997, and so far they have been Americans.