The Tianwen-1 probe has sent the first image of Mars during the fourth trajectory correction for an early entry into the near-Mars orbit. This is reported by the China National Space Administration.
The black and white photo was taken at a distance of 2.2 million kilometers from the Red Planet. The probe is currently 1.1 million kilometers from Mars and 184 kilometers from Earth. The spacecraft is expected to start decelerating on February 10 to be captured by the planet’s gravitational field.
The probe consists of two main parts: the orbiter and the landing capsule. The ultimate goal of the mission is to carry out a soft landing of the rover in May on the southern part of the Utopia Plain, the oldest impact crater in the solar system, for scientific research. The rover should last three months.
Tianwen-1 is part of the Chinese Mars Exploration Program, which was launched in 2009 in cooperation with Russia. However, due to the unsuccessful launch of the Phobos-Grunt apparatus and the attendant loss of the Chinese Yinghuo-1 microprobe, China began planning missions to the Red Planet without the help of other countries.
Currently, the United States is the only country that has successfully landed probes and rovers on the surface of Mars. The apparatus of the Soviet Union and the EU failed, although they managed to transmit valuable scientific data.