There are various orbiters in the orbit of Mars that photograph the surface of the Red Planet from a height of several hundred kilometers. However, the most detailed and colorful map of this world was created not thanks to missions carried out by NASA or ESA agencies, but by the Chinese CNSA, which hides behind the success of the project called Tianwen-1.
China’s Tianwen-1 mission was launched in the summer of 2020 and was the first such venture by the Middle Kingdom related to Mars. It flew to the vicinity of the Red Planet orbiter, lander and rover. We owe the most detailed map of this world to photos taken from a ship that remained in orbit.
The Tianwen-1 mission to explore Mars has been completed almost 1300 days and during that time a lot of photos were captured surface from space. The MoRIC instrument captured 284 orbits of the Red Planet over 14.5 thousand imageswith spatial resolution from 57 to 197 m.
At that time, data was also collected by a special spectrometer. In this way, the Tianwen-1 orbiter managed to obtain 325 stripes in the visible and near-infrared bands, with a spatial resolution ranging from 265 to 800 m. The data collected in this way was processed by scientists. This was supervised by Professor Li Chunlai, Professor Zhang Rongqiao and their colleagues. In this way, it was possible to create a map of the Red Planet’s surface in a resolution no one has ever managed to obtain before.
It is worth adding that the true colors of the surface were obtained based on data from MMS. During the work, some changes related to calibration were also introduced.
China’s Tianwen-1 mission, although it was the first to Mars, turned out to be a huge success for the country. It is no wonder that the Middle Kingdom is seriously considering sending people to the Red Planet. A manned mission is being considered for the next decade or the next. First, however, the Chinese want to bring Martian samples to Earth for research, and they believe that they will be the first country in history to do so.
***
Stay up to date and become one of 90 thousand followers of our fanpage – like Geekweek on Facebook and comment on our articles there!
***
What do you think about editorial work The geek? Rate us! Your opinion matters to us.
Source: geekweek.interia.pl
