The black and white image was captured by Tianwen 1 when it was 2.2 million km away from Mars. (Image: CNSA)
China’s Mars Mission: China’s Mars probe, the Tianwen 1, has sent a black and white image of the Red Planet back to the Earth, marking the very first image that the spacecraft has transmitted to the handle space on Earth. This came as the Tianwen 1 carried out the fourth orbital correction on Friday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) stated in a statement. The orbital correction is portion of Tianwen 1’s preparation to enter the orbit of Mars about February 10. One of the engines of the spacecraft was ignited in the evening so that the orbital correction could take location. This would make certain that Tianwen 1 flew in the right path, so as to get closer to the gravitational field of the Red Planet.
So far, the Tianwen 1 has been flying for 197 days and has covered more than 465 million kilometres. At its present position, it is at a distance of 184 million kilometres from the Earth. On the other hand, it is substantially closer to the Red Planet, with a distance of only 1.1 million kilometres. The distance in between the Earth and Mars varies in between 55 million kilometres and 400 million kilometres, based on their positions on their respective orbits.
The image that Tianwen 1 sent to CNSA was taken when the spacecraft had been at twice its present distance from the Red Planet, i.e., when it was about 2.2 million kilometres away from Mars.
Tianwen 1 is an vital mission for China mainly because it marks the very first independent Mars mission that the nation has sent. It had in 2011 attempted to send a probe to the Red Planet on a Russian rocket, but the mission had failed. Tianwen 1, on the other hand, had been launched by the nation in July final year on the Long March 5 carrier rocket, which had taken off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center positioned in Hainan province. With this, the nation kicked off its planetary exploration programme.
The spacecraft would be captured by the gravity of the Red Planet immediately after it would carry out a braking operation to decelerate itself. The probe consists of two components, an orbiter and a landing capsule, and the mission’s key target is to conduct the soft landing of its rover on the Martian surface in May. The nation has zeroed in on the effect basin named Utopia for the landing of its rover, and after landed, the mission would conduct scientific surveys.