An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported on Wednesday.
An image of Mars taken by China's Tianwen-1 unmanned probe is seen in this handout image released on June 29, 2022 ReutersChina's Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country's inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.
An image of Mars taken by China's Tianwen-1 unmanned probe is seen in this handout image released on June 29, 2022 ReutersAmong the images taken from space were China's first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet's water resources are locked.
In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European Space Agency had discovered water under the ice of the planet's south pole.
An image of Mars taken by China's Tianwen-1 unmanned probe is seen in this handout image released on June 29, 2022 ReutersLocating subsurface water is key to determining the planet's potential for life, as well as providing a permanent resource for any human exploration there.
An image of Mars taken by China's Tianwen-1 unmanned probe is seen in this handout image released on June 29, 2022 ReutersOther Tianwen-1 images include photographs of the 4,000-kilometre long canyon Valles Marineris, and impact craters of highlands in the north of Mars known as Arabia Terra.
Tianwen-1 also sent back high-resolution imagery of the edge of the vast Maunder crater, as well as a top-down view of the 18,000-metre Ascraeus Mons, a large shield volcano first detected by NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft more than five decades ago.
