On the occasion of New Year's Day in 2022, the China National Space Administration released a set of exquisite images transmitted from distant Mars by the Tianwen-1 probe, China's first Mars exploration mission, reporting to the people of the whole country on the safety of "Tianwen-1" and extending holiday greetings.
This set of images includes a group photo of the orbiter and Mars, a local close-up of the orbiter, the Arctic ice sheet of Mars, and the fire surface landform photographed by the "Zhurong" rover, showing the working state of the orbiter, the "Zhurong" rover and the acquired surface form of Mars.
Figure 1: The orbiter poses with Mars
In the image, the orbiter is flying over the north pole of Mars, the orbiter body is golden, the directional antenna for high-speed data communication with the ground is silver, and the solar wing and radar antenna are well deployed. The white area on Mars is the "ice" field covering the North Pole, and unlike the ice at the poles of Earth, the "ice" of Mars consists of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) and water ice. The dark area below Mars is the Martian Olympiashapo, the bright ring crater in the upper left corner is called Korolev Crater, and the rest of the red and dark areas are bare surfaces.
Figure 2: Local close-up of the surrounder
The sun wing on one side of the orbiter is fully extended and stable. An expanded subsurface detection radar antenna parallel to the solar wing, the magnetometer rod protruding toward the upper left of the orbiter.
Figure 3: The Martian Arctic Ice Sheet
The image shows the North Pole ice sheet of Mars, with a clearly visible layer. After years of sedimentation and ablation, it takes on a circular spiral of white ice centered on poles and bare surfaces.
Figure 4: The "Zhu Rong" rover photographs the fire surface landform
The image is stitched together and mosaicked by three images recently obtained by the Zhurong rover using the navigation terrain camera, and typical Martian landforms such as ring craters and stones can be seen.
As of December 31, 2021, the Tianwen-1 mission orbiter has been in orbit for 526 days, currently about 350 million kilometers from Earth, with a communication delay of about 19.5 minutes; the rover has worked on the surface of Mars for 225 Martian days, with a cumulative travel of more than 1400 meters. At present, the Tianwen-1 mission is carrying out exploration and related tests as planned, sending back a total of about 560GB of raw scientific data, and the two devices are in good condition and running normally.
Source: People's Daily client