Since the launch, the device has covered more than 470 million km.
BEIJING, February 24. /TASS/. The unmanned spacecraft of the People's Republic of China "Tianwen-1" on Wednesday entered the reference orbit of Mars and will soon begin scientific research. This was reported by the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Programs of the Chinese National Space Administration.
As specified on its official page on the social network WeChat, the probe completed the correction of the trajectory at 06: 29 Beijing time (01:29 Moscow time). According to the center, in the next three months, the device will be located at an altitude of 280 km in the pericenter (the point closest to the planet) to 59 thousand km above the surface of the planet.
Since its launch, Tianwen-1 has traveled more than 470 million km (flying in a straight line between Mars and Earth is impossible due to the gravitational field of the Sun, so longer trajectories are chosen-elliptical, parabolic and hyperbolic). When entering the Martian orbit, taking into account the specifics of the movement, it is removed from our planet by more than 212 million km.
It is expected that in May-June, the probe will make a soft landing in the southern part of the Utopia plain. It is assumed that in this part of the planet, ground water could come to the surface. The rover will study the ground, ionosphere and climate.
Tianwen-1 was launched on July 23, 2020, using a Changzheng-5 launch vehicle from the Wenchang Space center, located in the southern Chinese province of Hainan. On February 10, it reached the elliptical orbit of Mars. The spacecraft weighs 5 tons: 1.3 tons per lander and 3.7 tons per orbiter. It is equipped with 13 modern measuring instruments.
