China ’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft currently orbiting Mars has sent back its first high definition images of the Red Planet and they are unbelievable . There really is no such thing as too much Mars .
In early February , the probe sent back itsfirst images of Mars , but these newfangled images exhaust by the Chinese National Space Administration ( CNSA ) are much more detailed , revealing unmortgaged features on the surface .
The investigation , which is revolve Mars in preparation for a landing on the surface in the not - too - distant future , take away the surface photos with its high - definition photographic camera when it was about 330–350 kilometers ( 205–217 stat mi ) above the Martian airfoil . The color image , snapped by another tv camera on the satellite , shows Mars ’s north pole in stunning detail .
The two black and white images have a resolution of 7 m , intend the cameras can distinguish object just 7 meters apart , and reveal mickle ridges , craters , andsand dunes . It is forecast the largest wallop crater seen here is around 620 meters ( 2,034 feet ) across , Chinese nation - consort tidings agencyXinhua report .
Tianwen-1 , which means Questions to Heaven , launch to Marsin July 2020 , along withPerseveranceand the United Arab Emirates ' firstmission to Mars , Hope , thanks to the short launching window last summertime that think of the trip to Mars would be just 7 months .
The spacecraft is made up of the orbiter , a lander , and a 6 - wheeled bird of passage . The satellite reached Mars on February 24 , 2021 , and the CNSA has said it will orbit Mars for three month before attempting a landing , possibly in May or June 2021 . According to the way , they are eyeing the southern part of Mars ’s Utopia Planitia , a great plain within the Utopia crater — the enceinte spot volcanic crater in the total Solar System — as the landing site .
The as - yet - unidentified roamer can move at 200 meter ( 656 feet ) per hour , which is pretty speedy for a Mars rover . Curiosity currently trundles at 140 meters ( 460 feet ) per hour and Perseverance , when it gets locomote , will be able to make a slightly faster 152 meters ( 500 feet ) per minute . It also post six scientific instrument to carry out tasks on the satellite , including ground - penetrating radiolocation and a multispectral camera .
Until Tianwen-1 ’s landing abridgment is released and it deploys what will hopefully be the sixth rover on Mars , all seven payloads on the orbiter will be activated during its 3 - month arrest in parking orbit to stockpile out undertaking such as analyzing land features and monitoring the conditions for an optimum landing place .
AsCNSA guide out , Tianwen-1 is the world ’s 46th Mars mission and only 19 of those have been successful , so join us in May or June when we go through the baseless drive that is the " 7 minutes of terror " again as China attempts to make chronicle as only the second commonwealth to successfully land a rover on Mars .
