Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter continues to conduct multi-dimensional exploration two years after its launch

Shanghai, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter, which has been on duty on Mars for two years, is carrying out global remote sensing scientific exploration missions on Mars.

A rendering of the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter. (Photo courtesy of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)

my country's first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe, consists of an orbiter and a lander, and achieved the three goals of "orbiting, landing, and patrolling" in one mission. Among them, the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter successfully entered the orbit around Mars on February 10, 2021, becoming my country's first artificial Martian satellite. As a powerful "space all-rounder", the orbiter played the three roles of aircraft, communicator, and probe in the Tianwen-1 Mars exploration mission, creating many firsts at home and abroad.

The first image of Mars taken by Tianwen-1 at a distance of about 2.2 million kilometers from Mars. (Released on February 5, 2021). (Photo provided by the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)

Before the Tianwen-1 probe landed on Mars, the Mars orbiter acquired panchromatic images with a resolution better than 1 meter, wide-area color medium-resolution images, and multispectral information of the pre-selected landing area during its approximately three-month parking flight. After landing on Mars, the Mars orbiter conducted imaging detection of the actual landing area and the Mars rover patrol area to obtain high-resolution images.

After entering the remote sensing mission orbit, the Mars orbiter completed the global remote sensing exploration mission of Mars and obtained medium-resolution image data covering the entire planet of Mars. Using these image data, Chinese researchers are drawing internationally advanced color global image maps of Mars. During the extended mission around Mars, the Mars orbiter carried out imaging exploration of Phobos and obtained my country's first image of Phobos.

my country's first image of Phobos (released on July 23, 2022). (Photo courtesy of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation)

In addition to the exploration data obtained by the scientific payload, the engineering data based on the Mars orbiter platform has also achieved fruitful results. From late September to mid-October 2021, the sun was between Mars and the Earth, and the Mars orbiter experienced a "solar eclipse" test. The orbiter lost contact with the Earth due to interference from the sun in radio communications.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, with the support of the National Space Administration, Chinese and foreign scientists jointly used the communication signal engineering data during the Martian "solar transit" to obtain research results such as the coronal plasma ejection velocity in the solar heliospace, the detailed structure of the coronal streamer waves, and the nascent high-speed solar wind flow.

At present, the orbiter is still in the position of "orbiting Mars" and continues to carry out multi-dimensional exploration of Mars.

Source: Xinhuanet