China displays image of Mars from orbiter “Tianwen-1”

To mark the New Year, the State Space Administration of the People’s Republic of China displayed a series of images of Mars taken by the orbiter of the Tianwen 1 space probe.

The images include close-ups of the rover, the icy surface of Mars, and the Zhuzhong rover.

The Tianwen-1 rover spent 526 days in Mars orbit, at a distance of 3.5 million km from Earth.

The probe was launched on July 23, 2020 from the Wenchang Cosmodrome using the CZ-5 heavy launch vehicle. The main function of the unit is to act as a repeater when transferring data from a Chinese rover.

The mission studies the morphological and geological characteristics of the surface, the placement of soil and ice, the ionosphere and the nature of the environment, the physical fields and the internal structure of the Red Planet.