Mars orbiter Tianwen-1 sends back pictures of red planet's north pole

The Tianwen 1 orbiter, which has been hovering over Mars since February 2021, has beamed back stunning photos from the red planet. Published by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on January 1, the pictures were captured through a camera that was released by the Tianwen 1 probe. Launched in July 2020 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China's Hainan province, the probe has travelled over 475 million kilometres by now. 

The first image shared by CNSA is the first ever to capture a complete view of the Tianwen 1 orbiter. In the picture, the orbiter can be seen cruising over the barren Martian landscape which represents the icy area of Mars' north pole. The orbiter's golden central body, solar arrays and communication antenna can also be spotted in the colour photograph. The second image, which looks more like a selfie, was also taken by the camera which then transferred the photographs to the orbiter via Wi-Fi. 

Image: CNSA

"The orbiter is currently orbiting Mars in very good condition. We can see our orbiter flying around Mars in a working state, and we can clearly see the solar panel wings, directional antenna and some of the antenna facilities in orbit," Sun Zezhou, Tianwen 1 chief system designer said as per Space.com. The orbiter also transmitted the first images of Mars north pole showing marvellous northern ice caps of the red planet.

Image: CNSA

The probe, which is currently 350 million kilometres away from Earth, has been orbiting the red planet since February 2021 and had released the Zhurong rover in May 2021. Weighing 240-kilogram and measuring 1.85-meter-tall, the rover is the sixth rover that has successfully landed on Mars after five from the US. With its 226 days of service, the rover surpassed its three-month expected lifespan and has travelled 1.4 kilometres while transmitting over 540 gigabytes of data back to Earth. 

According to Space.com, the Tianwen 1 orbiter is not transmitting signals as frequently as it used to do owing to two reasons. First is the hindrance caused due to the Mars conjunction, when Mars and Earth were on opposite sides of the Sun in late 2021 and the second is the probe's new orbit to start its own science investigations and serving no longer to the Zhurong rover. 

Image: CNSA