The State space administration of China reported that the flight was successful
BEIJING, November 17. /TASS/. The Chinese probe for studying Mars "Tianwen-1" for 116 days of flight overcame about 300 million km on the way to this planet, the flight is successful. This was announced on Tuesday by the state space administration of the people's Republic of China.
"As of the morning of November 17, local time, the probe of the first Chinese mission to explore Mars "Tianwen-1" has been in space for 116 days, the flight length exceeded 300 million km, the probe is located at a distance of about 63.8 million km from Earth. All systems are working properly, " the Agency said in a statement.
As previously reported by the space administration, the trajectory of the probe to Mars is not a straight line, but an arc. That is why the distance from the spacecraft to Earth is less than the actual distance traveled by Tianwen-1 in the direction of Mars.
Tianwen-1 was launched on July 23 using a Changzheng-5 launch vehicle (CZ-5, "Great trek-5") from the Wenchang space center, located in the southern province of Hainan. In about seven months, the probe will approach Mars, making a series of four maneuvers on its way to the fourth planet in the Solar system. To date, three corrections have been made.
In total, "Tianwen-1" will work in the orbit of Mars for almost three months, after which it will be separated from the landing platform, which will land on the territory of the Utopia plain, the largest impact crater in the Solar system. After checking all systems on the planet's surface, the Rover will leave the platform and begin exploring Mars.
Among the scientific goals of the mission are to study the morphology and geological characteristics of the surface of Mars, search for deposits of ice and sedimentary rocks, study the ionosphere, magnetic field and internal structure of the planet. During the preparation of the mission, the state space administration of the people's Republic of China cooperated with the European space Agency, France, Austria and Argentina.