Chinese orbiter Tianwen-1 has completed the image of the entire surface of Mars, the National Space Administration of China (CNSA) announced this week. The orbiter, which traveled to Mars along with the Zhurong rover, arrived on Mars in February 2021 and has been collecting images of the planet’s surface as part of a global survey.
During his time on the red planet, the Tianwen-1 orbiter made 1,344 passes around the planet and made observations with scientific instruments such as cameras, magnetometers, spectrometers and a radar instrument. The orbiter has been in operation for 706 days, during which time the CNSA says it captured the entire surface with its medium-resolution camera.
Image of the surface of Mars taken by the Tianwen-1 orbiter. CNSA / PEC
The images collected by the orbit were shared by space journalist Andrew Jones on Twitter and show a selection of views of the red planet’s surface taken from orbit, including impact craters and other terrain features.
Tianwen-1 has completed a global image of Mars with its medium-resolution camera after orbiting the red planet 1,344 times. Tianwen-1 was launched in July 2020 and entered the orbit of Mars in February 2021. Images: CNSA / PEC pic.twitter.com/UvW9WGjp0Y
– Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) June 29, 2022
The Tianwen-1 mission consists of three parts: the orbiter that took these images, the Zhurong rover, and a landing that brought the rover to the surface. The rover has also been busy, traveling about 2,000 meters around the planet in the Utopia Planitia region. However, it is colder in this area, so the rover went into idle mode in May and will reactivate in December once temperatures warm up.
Both the rover and the orbiter have now completed their main missions, but as both continue to work, they will continue to be used for future explorations. The CNSA says it has so far collected 1,040 GB of data, including orbit data that has been shared with other space agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Some commentators have argued that this data exchange suggests that the famous CNSA secret is becoming more open about its work, as evidenced in a white paper published in 2021, which set out some of the agency’s past and future plans. . The CNSA also announced that its Zhurong rover recently conducted an orbiting relay communication test with an ESA orbiter, the Mars Express spacecraft.
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