The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released a series of new Mars images captured by the Tianwen-1 probe, sending New Year's greetings to the world on the first day of 2022.
A close-up image of the orbiter. /CNSA
An image of Mars' northern polar ice cap. /CNSA
An image of the surface of Mars. /CNSA
The orbiter of the mission, which serves as a relay communication satellite, has been working in orbit for 526 days at a distance of about 3.5 million kilometers from Earth. The communication delay is about 19.5 minutes.
The Zhurong rover of China's Mars mission had traveled 1,400 meters on the surface of Mars as of December 31, 2021.
The mission has sent back a total of 560 GB raw scientific data, and all systems are in normal operation, according to CNSA.