China spacecraft captures images covering entire surface of Mars

BEIJING • An unmanned 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 yesterday.

Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on China's inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.

Among the images taken from space were China's first photos 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. Locating subsurface water is key to determining the planet's potential for life, as well as providing a permanent resource for any human exploration there.

Other Tianwen-1 images include photos of the 4,000km-long canyon Valles Marineris, and impact craters of highlands in the north known as Arabia Terra.

Tianwen-1 also sent back high-resolution images of the edge of the vast Maunder crater, as well as a top-down view of the 18,000m Ascraeus Mons, a large shield volcano first detected by Nasa's Mariner 9 spacecraft more than five decades ago.

REUTERS