The first mission to Mars in China, Tianwen-1, has now traveled more than 400 million km (249 million miles) and is expected to reach the orbit of the red planet in February.
The probe, which has been traveling for 163 days since its launch in July, is about 130 million km from Earth, China’s National Space Administration said in a statement Sunday night. The distance traveled was more than 400 million km after a series of orbital movements while moving away from Earth’s orbit and approaching the red planet.
According to the space agency, Tianwen-1 has so far made three orbital corrections in addition to equipment tests. They said the probe remained in good condition as it continued its journey to Mars – still 8.3 million km away.
If it successfully reaches the orbit of the red planet next month as scheduled, it will be 190 million km from Earth and will have traveled more than 500 million km to get there.
It is expected to land on Mars in May and will release a rover for a scientific study that is expected to work for about 90 Martian days, which is slightly longer than the same on Earth.
Tianwen-1, which translates as “Questions of Heaven”, is named after a work by one of China’s greatest poets, Qu Yuan (340-278BC).
Two other astronauts are also on their way to the red planet – the UAE’s first Mars mission, Hope, and the U.S. Perseverance rover. All three missions were launched in July last year.
The Tianwen-1 mission is part of China’s ambitious space program, which includes plans for a permanent space station. His spacecraft Chang’e 5 recently returned to Earth in December after retrieving 1.73kg (3.8lb) of rock samples from the moon – making it the first country to do so since U.S. missions. and the Soviets in the 1960s and 70s.
China said last month that it would launch the basic model of its first permanent space station in the spring, to build it over 11 missions in the next two years and complete it by 2022.
“This is the first time we have set up a space station that is so large,” Zhou Jianping, China ‘s chief space program designer, told the state – of – the – art CCTV broadcaster Sunday.
“We will launch the cargo group and the carrier, respectively, after the basic model enters in-orbit operation,” he said. “We will further test the core technology of the space station, which introduces technology that allows our astronauts to operate outside the spacecraft. “
Astronauts are already training for the Tiangong Space Station project and will be conducting orbit missions and testing in-orbit technologies, according to a CCTV report.
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