China’s space agency is launching video images two days after its probe from Mars successfully entered the orbit of the red planet.
China’s space agency has released video footage of its spacecraft orbiting Mars, two days after it successfully entered orbit around the planet in Beijing’s last ambitious space mission.
In the video, published by the state broadcaster CCTV, the surface of the planet is seen coming out of the raised black sky, outside the Tianwen-1 part, which entered the orbit of the Red Planet on Wednesday.
The white craters are visible on the planet’s surface, which fades from black to white through the video, as the probe flies during a Martian day, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The 5,000-kilogram (five-ton) Tianwen-1 – which translates to “Questions to the Sky” – includes a Mars orbiter, a lander and a solar-powered rover launched from southern China in July last year.
It is the last step of the Beijing space program, which aims to establish a manned space station by 2022 and finally put one astronaut on the moon and opened a new alien arena for US-China competition.
Signs of the past life
Tianwen-1 was launched at the same time as a rival US mission and is expected to hit the planet in May.
Its success comes in the same week that the UAE’s Hope spacecraft successfully entered Mars’ orbit – making history the world’s first interplanetary mission.
Chinese scientists hope to land a 240-kilogram rover in May in Utopia, a huge impact basin on Mars. Its orbiter will last a Martian year.
For the three-month study of the planet’s soil and atmosphere, the mission will take photos, diagram maps and look for signs of past life.
The spacecraft has already sent its first image of Mars – a black-and-white photograph showing geological features, including the Schiaparelli crater and Valles Marineris, a vast expanse of canyons on the Martian surface.
Mars proved to be a challenging target, most missions since 1960, sent by Russia, Europe, Japan and India, failing.
NASA’s perseverance, which is due to reach the Red Planet on February 18, will become the fifth rover to complete the 1997 trip – and so far they have been Americans.