Chinese probe Tianwen 1 took a selfie with Mars
(CNSA / PEC)
China's National Space Administration (CNSA) has revealed new selfies of the Tianwen 1 Orbiter taken by a detachable camera.
In addition to ship device itself, the northern polar region of Mars was captured in the frame.
Tianwen 1 was launched in the summer of 2020, becoming China's first project to explore Mars by robotic vehicles.
The mission includes an orbiter and a landing platform with the Zhuzhong rover, which landed in the Utopia Plain in May 2021
The rover has traveled more than 1400 meters in total on the surface of the Red Planet.
One of the technical features of the project was the repeated use of small detachable vehicles equipped with a camera and a radio transmitter for photographing both the orbital module and the rover.
There were three such secondary payloads in total, two for the orbiter and one for the rover.
On January 1, 2022, the CNSA released two selfies of the orbiter taken with the latest detachable camera.
They show the body of the probe, covered with gold thermal insulation, a silvery antenna, solar panels, as well as the north polar region of Mars.
After the camera took pictures, it transferred them to the probe, and then completed its work.
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