China’s Mars orbiter, Tianwen-1, stunned us earlier this month when it revealed it had deployed a small camera equipment into orbit to take a “selfie” of itself above the Red Planet. It has now shown something unexpected once more. The spacecraft includes a camera on the end of an extending arm that has filmed Tianwen-1 as it races across Mars’ surface. The video’s debut coincides with the Lunar New Year, which begins tonight in several East and Southeast Asian countries that use the lunar calendar.
The orbiter seen moving across the dark sky, adjusting its solar panel, and then bam, the surface of Mars comes into view. In addition, you realize the Chinese National Space Administration on the Chinese social network Weixin (WeChat) only a few hundred kilometers above the Red Planet, its North Pole and glaciers clearly visible against the redness of the surrounding soil, according to the video posts it. The selfie stick is 1.6 meters (5.25 feet) long and is used to monitor the orbiter’s instruments as well as, more significantly, to take amazing selfies.
In July 2020, Tianwen-1, which means “Questions to Heaven,” launched toward Mars alongside NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover and the United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars, Hope. The mission’s orbiter is studying Mars’ geology and weak magnetic field, while the Zhurong rover made history by becoming the second country successfully land a rover on the Red Planet. The six-wheeled rover has operated for 255 Martian days and traveled 1,524 meters as of today (5,000 feet). It has a strong selfie game as well.
Since its historic arrival on May 15, when China became the second nation to successfully land a rover on Mars, China’s Zhurong rover has sent back its first batch of scientific photographs. The photographs are a remarkable contribution to our understanding of Mars, with an enormous panorama, a comprehensive look at Mars’ geography, and some impressive-looking wheelies by the rover. Nevertheless, who is the one who has won our hearts? A sweet group photo of Zhurong and its lander, snapped on a camera timer like any tourist sending a photo home. Zhurong used a small wireless camera to shoot the “touring group photo,” according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
It moved 10 meters south of the landing platform, set the camera (which had been stored underneath the rover) on the ground, and then returned to stand next to the Chinese flag-draped landing platform.
