The Tianwen-1 spacecraft successfully arrived at the red planet last February as part of China’s first mission. She placed a robotic rover on the planet’s surface while a spacecraft explored the planet from space.
Among the images taken by the ship were the first Chinese photos of the south pole of Mars, where almost all of the planet’s water sources are located.
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Water, which is hidden under the ice at the south pole of the planet, was discovered in 2018 by the probe of the European Space Agency (ESA). Finding groundwater is key in determining the planet’s potential for life and also in securing a permanent source of water in the event that a crew participates in the survey.
Crater planet
Other images of the Tchien-wen-1 spacecraft include photographs of the 4,000-kilometer-long Valles Marineris canyon and impact craters in the north of Mars known as Arabia Terra.
It also sent high-resolution images of the rim of the vast Maunder Crater as well as a top-down view of the 18,000-meter-high shield volcano Ascraeus Mons, first discovered by NASA’s Mariner 9 probe more than five decades ago.
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