China’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft is expected to enter Mars orbit next month after traveling more than 400 km since its launch on July 23 last year.
The spacecraft flew into space for 163 days and is currently about 8.3m km from Mars, according to China’s National Space Administration.
The flight marks the beginning of the country’s independent planetary exploration mission.
“The probe is flying faster and faster as it emerges from the influence of heliocentric gravity,” said Li Zhencai, the project’s deputy commander. “Currently, the speed is practically stable at about 22 km per second from Earth.”
This means that the probe covers about 1.8 km per day.
The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
It is expected to reach Mars in May 2021, about three months after arriving on the orbit of the red planet.
The distance between Mars and Earth changes periodically, from 50 million kilometers to the nearest and 400 million kilometers to the farthest.