A few days from the first anniversary of the arrival of the Chinese orbiter Tianwen-1 at its destination orbiting around mars, the ship wanted to send a gift to Earth. And it is that, on the occasion of the Chinese New Yeara robotic arm has been used for the first time that has allowed him to carry out his first selfie.
It is not the first Martian vehicle to pose before its own camera. We could already see, for example, NASA’s InSight probe, giving its best profile with the red planet as a backdrop. But that doesn’t make the photo you just gave us any less exciting. tianwen-1. And the whole process has been a surprise.
It all happened in early January, when the Tianwen-1 orbiter released a small camera to accompany you during your journey around Mars. This was very exciting, since it was hoped that beautiful photographs of the Martian territory could be obtained. But, as if that were not enough, now that camera has released a robotic arm that, by way of selfie stick, has collected photographs and videos of both the orbiter itself and the red planet. It is the special gift that China National Space Administration (CNSA) wanted to do on the occasion of the beginning of the year of the water tiger.
A Martian selfie to welcome the Chinese New Year
The selfie images of Tianwen-1 have been shared by the CNSA on his Chinese social network account Weixinalthough they are also published on Twitter, in the account of the journalist specializing in the Chinese space program Andrew Jones.
In them you can first see the orbiter adjusting its solar panels and soon after, on the side of our screens, a nice panorama of Mars. These will be the two missions of the camera and its robotic arm. On the one hand, show us images of the red planet. On the other hand, monitoring the different instruments that travel on board the Tianwen-1 orbiter. But this time the mission of the selfie stick, 1.6 meters long, is none other than to show the world the martian beauty.
flying just a few hundred kilometers from the surface of Mars, Tianwen-1 shows us a vermilion landscape dotted with bright glaciers.
The Tianwen-1 mission on Mars
At the moment Tianwen-1 has given us a nice selfie on the occasion of the Chinese New Year. But, logically, the mission was not launched there just for that purpose. In fact, it does not only consist of the orbiter, since a landing module and a rover were also sent along with it, baptized as Zhurong.
During the 661 days mission is expected to last, the three craft will work together to explore Mars for remains of lifeeither current or old. In addition, since their arrival in the orbit of this planet they have been making maps of the topography of the Martian surface, the characteristics of the soil, the composition of its materials, the ice, the atmosphere and the ionospheric field. For this, without a doubt, the robotic arm that has just been extended from the orbiter camera.
But there will be time for that. Now in China they are celebrating the New Year and the holidays are an ideal situation to take photos with our best clothes. As long as we haven’t gone too far with the drinks, of course. And of course, tianwen-1 he also wanted his. Although she is tens of millions of kilometers from the place of celebration.