Friday marked the second anniversary of China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which has obtained many first-hand discoveries, unveiling the secrets of the red planet over the past two years, entering the Martian orbit. 

China's first Mars probe consists of an orbiter, a rover and a lander. On February 10, 2021, the orbiter successfully entered the orbit around Mars after traveling about 475 million kilometers over 202 days.

It was the country's first artificial satellite of Mars.

Read more: China's first Mars probe enters Red Planet's orbit

A versatile Mars detector

The orbiter integrates functions of spacecraft, communicator and detector. Armed with seven scientific payloads, it aims to probe Mars' topography, mineral composition and magnetic field to obtain more first-hand data.

Before entering the Martian orbit, the orbiter served as a spacecraft carrying the rover and lander and conducted a deep-space orbital maneuver and four mid-course corrections.

It obtained multiple high-resolution images and multi-spectral information about the pre-selected landing area in the parking orbit to prepare for the soft landing.

On May 15, 2021, the landing module, consisting of the lander and the rover Zhurong, separated from the orbiter and landed on the pre-selected landing zone in the southern part of an icy area of the planet known as Utopia Planitia.

A week later, the rover Zhurong drove down from its landing platform onto the Martian surface. The orbiter provided it with relay communications for roughly half a year.

Read more: Hi Mars! China's probe lands on Red Planet

In November 2021, the orbiter entered its remote-sensing orbit, starting global scientific exploration of Mars. On June 29, 2022, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced that the orbiter had acquired medium-resolution image data covering the entire Martian surface, based on which Chinese researchers are reported to have been able to draw a color global image of the planet.

Read more: What to expect after China's Mars orbiter enters remote-sensing orbit

The orbiter relayed high-definition images of the red planet's natural satellite Phobos in July 2022, showing it in an irregular shape like a potato. 

By December 29, 2022, the orbiter had been operating for 687 Earth days, which equals one Martian year.

In addition to the exploration data obtained from the scientific payloads, the engineering data based on the orbiter platform has also achieved fruitful results.

During September to October 2021, the orbiter and the rover Zhurong lost communication with Earth and operations were suspended due to the impact of an astronomical phenomenon known as solar conjunction.

Despite that, based on the communication signal engineering data during the period, scientists home and aboard cooperated to obtain research results on the velocity of coronal plasma ejections, the detailed structure of coronal waves and the nascent high-speed solar wind flow.

Onboard a Long March-5 rocket, China launched the probe in its first Mars mission named Tianwen-1 on July 23, 2020, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission, and taking the first step in its planetary exploration of the solar system.

Read more: Tianwen-1 to Mars: A visual journey of China's first Mars mission