The module has been operating in the orbit of the planet for 526 days
BEIJING, January 1. /tass/. The State Space Administration of the People's Republic of China released on Saturday a series of images of Mars taken by the orbital module of the Tianwen-1 space probe (Tianwen-1).
Wow! This is yet another surprise from the Tianwen-1 mission. The orbiter had apparently released a small sub satellite while in Mars orbit, returning these outrageous images. [CNSA/CLEP/PEC] https://t.co/hPezkaDOgn pic.twitter.com/b22JvIQgAb- Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) January 1, 2022
The module has been operating in Mars orbit for 526 days, being at a distance of 3.5 million km from Earth, the report says. The transfer of the photo took about 19.5 minutes.
The probe was launched on July 23, 2020 from the Wenchang Cosmodrome (Hainan Province, Southern China) using a CZ-5 heavy launch vehicle (Changzheng-5). After landing the descent module, the orbiter continues to move around Mars, making a complete revolution around the planet in two Martian days (24 hours 39 minutes). Its main function is to serve as a repeater when transmitting information from the Chinese rover.
Meanwhile, the Zhurong rover, as of December 31, 2021, passed over the surface of the Red Planet 1,400 m. Among the scientific objectives of the mission is to study the morphology and geological characteristics of the surface, the placement of soil and ice, the atmospheric ionosphere and the nature of the environment, physical fields and the internal structure of Mars.
During the preparation of the mission, China cooperated with the European Space Agency, France, Austria and Argentina.
