China’s space probe captures first image of Mars

Beijing, Feb 6 : China’s space probe Tianwen-1 has sent back the first image of Mars that it captured from a distance of 2.2 million km from the Red Planet.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released the image of Mars captured by Tianwen-1, Xinhua reported on Friday.
The probe conducted its fourth orbital correction on Friday at 8 pm, aiming to ensure that the probe achieves a sound planned rendezvous with Mars. The probe has travelled about 197 days in orbit, flying about 465 million km.
It is currently 184 million km from Earth and 1.1 million km from Mars. All probe systems are in good working condition, the CNSA said.
China launched the Mars probe on July 23, 2020 on a Long March-5 rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft launch site in south China’s Hainan province. The Tianwen-1 probe, weighing about 5 tonnes, consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover.
The probe completed its first orbital correction on August 2, its second on September 20 and its third on October 28 last year. It is set to enter Mars orbit on February 10. After entering the Mars orbit, it will spend around three months surveying potential landing sites, using a high-resolution camera to prepare for the landing in May.