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Beijing (AFP)
China’s Tianwen-1 probe has sent its first image of Mars, the national space agency said, as the mission prepares to land on the Red Planet later this year.
The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as a rival US mission, is expected to enter the orbit of Mars around February 10.
The black-and-white photo released Friday night by the China National Space Administration showed geological features such as the Schiaparelli Crater and Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on the Martian surface.
The photo was taken about 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to the CNSA, which said the spacecraft was now 1.1 million kilometers from the planet.
The robotic spacecraft fired one of its engines to “make an orbital correction” on Friday and was expected to slow down before being “captured by Martian gravity” around February 10, the agency said.
The five-ton Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, a lander, and a rover that will study the planet’s soil.
China hopes to finally land the rover in May in Utopia, a massive impact basin on Mars.
After seeing the United States and the Soviet Union lead the way during the Cold War, China has invested billions of dollars in its military-led space program.
It has made great strides in the last decade, sending a human into space in 2003.
The Asian power has laid the foundations to mount a space station by 2022 and achieve a permanent foothold in Earth orbit.
But Mars has proven to be a challenging target so far, and most missions sent to the planet by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and India since 1960 have ended in failure.
Tianwen-1 is not China’s first attempt to reach Mars.
A previous mission with Russia in 2011 ended prematurely because the launch failed.
China has already sent two rovers to the moon. With the second, China became the first country to make a successful soft landing on the other side.
All Tianwen-1 probe systems are in “good condition,” CNSA said on Friday.
© 2021 AFP
