. | . |
Mars-bound Tianwen 1 hits milestone by Staff Writers Beijing (XNA) Aug 31, 2020
China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe had traveled 100 million kilometers as of Friday morning, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration said in a statement that the spacecraft was in good condition and several of its mission payloads had completed self-examination and sent scientific data back to ground control. By Friday morning, the robotic probe had flown about 36 days in an Earth-Mars transfer trajectory toward the red planet, around 10.75 million km from Earth, it added. China launched Tianwen 1, the country's first independent Mars mission, on July 23 from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, thus beginning the nation's planetary exploration program. On July 27, the probe sent back a picture of Earth and the moon, which was taken by its optical navigation sensor when it was about 1.2 million km away from Earth. It was the first image from the spacecraft to be made public. If everything goes according to schedule, the 5-metric ton Tianwen 1, which consists of two major parts-an orbiter and landing capsule-will travel more than 470 million km before getting captured by the Martian gravitational field in February. The mission's ultimate goal is to soft-land a rover around May 2021 on the southern part of Mars' Utopia Planitia, a large plain within Utopia-the largest recognized impact basin in the solar system-to make scientific surveys, the administration said. Weighing about 240 kilograms, the rover, which has yet to be named, has six wheels and four solar panels and is able to move 200 meters per hour on Mars. It carries six scientific instruments including multispectral cameras, ground-penetrating radar and a meteorological measuring device, and is expected to carry out three months of surface explorations on the planet. If the highly autonomous machine functions well, it will become mankind's fifth rover deployed on Mars, following its four predecessors from the United States. Source: Xinhua News Agency
China's Mars probe over 8m km away from Earth Beijing (XNA) Aug 24, 2020 China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 has traveled more than 8 million km away from Earth and is functioning normally, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration Thursday. As of 11:20 pm Wednesday, the Mars probe has traveled 8.23 million km away from Earth. Starting from 10:20 pm Wednesday, multiple payloads on the Mars probe, including Mars Magnetometer, Mars Mineralogy Spectrometer and High-resolution Camera, have completed self-check to confir ... read more
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |