During routine hazardous #asteroid inspection operations for @ NASA’s #Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the @fallingstarIfA ATLAS-MLO telescope discovered China’s Tianwen-1 on its way to #Mars. Have a good trip Tianwen-1! pic.twitter.com/Kc5SQjljgc July 24, 2020
Spaceship or space rock?
An observatory affiliated with NASA’s search to identify potentially dangerous asteroids he discovered something just as quick but not so natural: a spaceship bound for Mars.
That vehicle was the Chinese Tianwen-1 Mars mission, which launched on Thursday (July 23) to begin a seven-month journey to the Red Planet. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, lander, and scout vehicle, all together in what China hopes will become its first successful mission on Mars.
Related: China launches ambitious Mars Rover-Lander-Orbiter mission
The views were captured by a program run by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which scans huge swaths of the sky for space rocks to gather enough observations for astronomers to map the path of each object in case one get too close for your comfort.
The new animation of Tianwen-1 moving away from Earth came from a facilities in Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaii, one of two Hawaiian observatories that make up the Asteroid Ground Impact Alert System, or ATLAS. ATLAS observatories regularly identify new celestial objects, such as the kite of the same name That dazzled sky watchers earlier this year before fading away.
But in this case, it was no celestial object that crossed ATLAS sight. Instead, it was the second in a trio of highly anticipated spaceships to launch to Mars during the three-week orbital alignment window this summer. China expects the three robotic components of the Tianwen-1 mission to send home a wealth of scientific data about the Red Planet.
The launch was preceded by the del First interplanetary mission of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday. NASA’s contribution to Mars, a massive rover called Perseverance that also carries a small experimental helicopter called Ingenuity, is currently slated to launch next Thursday (July 30).
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
