All articles tagged with #tianwen 1
China's Tianwen-1 orbiter captured images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during its fly-by of Mars, providing rare visual data on the object amid ongoing debates and limited access to images from NASA, with some scientists suggesting the comet may have extraterrestrial origins or technological signatures.
China's Mars rover Zhurong has discovered evidence of an ancient ocean on Mars, supporting theories of the planet's watery past. Research from the Tianwen-1 mission indicates that rock deposits in Utopia Planitia, a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere, suggest the presence of a sea around 3.5 billion years ago. The study, involving Hong Kong Polytechnic University and other institutions, found sedimentary rocks and surface features indicative of past water activity, providing a probable scenario for the ocean's formation.
China's Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter captured images of a massive dust storm near Olympus Mons, the solar system's largest mountain, using its MoRIC camera. The mission, which also included the Zhurong rover, successfully landed on Mars in May 2021 but has since lost contact, likely due to excessive dust covering its solar arrays. The orbiter's images are being used by a Chinese research team to study sand and dust storms on Mars, and the mission's success has contributed to the growing interest in China's space exploration efforts.
China's Tianwen 1 mission has produced a global map of Mars using data collected by its medium-resolution camera over an eight-month period. The images have a spatial resolution of 249 feet per pixel and include an orthographic projection of Mars' eastern and western hemispheres. The data will inform landing site selection for China's next Mars mission, a sample return mission expected to launch around 2030. The mission's rover, Zhurong, may never be able to reactivate itself due to an accumulation of dust on its solar panels.
China has released the first Mars global color images obtained from its first Mars exploration mission, providing an improved quality base map for scientific and exploration tasks on the Red Planet. The color images, jointly issued by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), included orthographic, Robinson, Mercator and azimuthal projections of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars with a spatial resolution of 76 meters. China's panoramic map of Mars is one of the most advanced in the field that is open to the public, experts noted, and it means that China is willing to share cutting-edge technology and information with its peers.
China's Zhurong Mars rover, part of the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, has been in a dormant mode since May 2022, but scientists are hopeful that it can reactivate and explore once more. The rover was supposed to autonomously resume activities in December 2021, but it has remained stationary for a while, covered by sand and dust, which has impacted its ability to generate electricity and retain heat. However, scientists believe that the rover may operate again in the summer season on Mars when it receives more sunlight and the temperature increases.