The China National Space Administration releases mid-flight images of Mars probe Tianwen 1 as the country's National Day coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival on Oct 1, 2020. It is the first time that Tianwen 1 took selfies. [China National Space Administration/Handout via Xinhua]
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe entered Martian orbit on Wednesday night after a lengthy interplanetary voyage, becoming the first Chinese spacecraft to reach the red planet.
The spacecraft's 3,000-Newton-thrust orbital-control engine was activated at 7:52 pm and fired for about 15 minutes to conduct a crucial "braking" operation to decelerate and help the probe be captured by Martian gravity.
The probe then moved to an elliptical Martian orbit with a perigee of about 400 kilometers and a circling period of 10 days and starting flying around the planet, according to the China National Space Administration.
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe enters Martian orbit on Feb 10, 2021. [Image/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
One of the most important and challenging steps in the Tianwen 1 mission, the Martian orbital insertion operation came a day after the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe, the first interplanetary mission by the Arab world, entered Mars' orbit on Tuesday.
Tianwen 1, the country's first independent Mars mission, was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, kicking off the nation's planetary exploration program.
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe enters Martian orbit on Feb 10, 2021. [Image/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Meaning "Quest for Heavenly Truth" in Chinese, Tianwen is a long poem by famous ancient poet Qu Yuan, who lived in the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). He is known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the Chu Ci anthology, also known as Songs of Chu.
The 5-metric ton probe, which consists of two major parts -- the orbiter and the landing capsule -- had flown for 202 days and about 475 million kilometers on its journey to Mars before its arrival. As of Wednesday night, it was around 192 million km from Earth and was in good condition, the space administration said in a statement.
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe enters Martian orbit on Feb 10, 2021. [Image/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
During its journey, the spacecraft conducted four midcourse corrections and a deep-space orbital maneuver to make sure it was always precisely aimed at Mars.
Next, it will carry out several orbital adjustments to move into a "berth" orbit above the red planet to make observation and investigation of the preset landing site. Payloads mounted on Tianwen 1's orbiter, including cameras, magnetometer and mineral spectrometer will gradually begin to work on their scientific tasks.
The Tianwen 1 mission's ultimate goal is to soft-land a rover around May and June on the southern part of Mars' Utopia Planitia -- a large plain within Utopia, the largest recognized impact basin in the solar system -- to conduct scientific surveys.
China's Tianwen 1 robotic probe enters Martian orbit on Feb 10, 2021. [Image/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The space administration published on Friday a black-and-white picture of Mars taken by Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 2.2 million kilometers from the red planet, the first snapshot of the red planet from the Chinese craft.
Tianwen 1 is the world's 46th Mars exploration mission since October 1960, when the former Soviet Union launched the world's first Mars-bound spacecraft. Only 18 of those missions were successful.
In the second step in China's Mars exploration program, a larger probe will set off for Mars around 2030 to take samples and then return to Earth, space officials have said.
