Tian Wen 1 captured the high-definition image of Mars. What are your expectations?

Tian Wen-1 captured a high-definition image of Mars. What does the surface of Mars look like?

Today (4th), NASA released three high-definition images of Mars, including two black-and-white images and 1 color image, which were taken by China's first Mars exploration mission "Tianwen-1".

Black-and-white images are taken by a high-resolution camera at a height of 330 km to 350 km from the surface of Mars, with a resolution of about 0.7 m. In the imaging area, small craters, ridges, sand dunes and other landforms on the surface of Mars can be clearly seen. According to calculation, the largest impact crater in the picture is about 620 m in diameter, and the color image is taken by a medium-resolution camera. The picture shows the Arctic region of Mars.

Since February 26th, Tianwen-1 has carried out scientific exploration in parking orbit, and scientific loads such as high-resolution camera, medium-resolution camera and mineral spectrometer have been turned on one after another to obtain scientific data. The high-resolution camera on the circulator is equipped with two kinds of imaging detectors, which can realize line push scanning and area array imaging, and observe the topography and landforms in key areas carefully. The medium resolution camera has the functions of automatic exposure and remote control to adjust exposure, which can draw the global remote sensing image map of Mars and detect the terrain and changes of Mars.

When did Tian Wen 1 land on Mars?

At this time, more than 200 days have passed since the successful launch of the "Tianwen-1" Long March 5 remote four carrier rocket spanning 475 million kilometers. At present, the 3000N engine has completed the ignition work, implemented near-fire braking and entered the orbit around Mars.

After entering the orbit around Mars, Tian Wen-1 will first observe the surface environment of Mars and collect data along with the orbital motion. This time, the first photo was taken 220km away from Mars, which clearly shows the landmark landforms on the surface of Mars, such as Daglia Plain, Chersi Plain, Meridian Plateau, Xia Parelli Pit and Mariner Valley in assisi. According to the scheduled plan, in May this year, "Tian Wen No.1" will officially start landing on Mars, which is expected to achieve a soft landing on the surface of Mars.

Once this plan is successfully implemented, it will largely mean that China's Mars exploration will "circle, land and patrol" in one step, which is a very difficult space exploration mode. Until now, the success rate of the global Mars exploration mission is still less than 40%. Even at its peak, the United States and the Soviet Union dared not try such a crazy space exploration plan. Once successful, it is indeed a great feat in the history of human space.

Of course, during this period, the most concerned thing is how to capture Tian Wen-1 by the gravity of Mars, which requires the probe to pass through the orbit of Mars with extremely high time and speed. It must be less than the escape speed of Mars (5.027km/s), and then it must reach the speed around the earth of 3.55km/s, and it will be constantly adjusted according to the actual situation and the distance between them. This is an extremely complicated operation process. Coupled with the subsequent landing and inspection, it fully embodies one of the most challenging fields in the world's high technology and is an important symbol of China's comprehensive national strength and innovation ability.