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China’s Tianwen-1 sends back pictures showing probe orbiting round Mars

  • Images show the ice caps on the north pole of the red planet as one of the country’s most ambitious space missions continues
  • Last year China became only the second country to successfully land a rover on the surface of the planet

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The Tianwen-1 orbiter seen orbiting above Mars. Photo: Xinhua
China published on Saturday photos showing its Mars orbiter Tianwen-1 circling above the north pole of the red planet.

The photo was taken by a detachable sensor equipped with two wide-angle lenses on the outer wall of the probe that was controlled from earth, according to the Chinese National Space Administration.

The mission is a major step forward for China’s space programme. Photo: Xinhua
The mission is a major step forward for China’s space programme. Photo: Xinhua

The data was then sent to the probe, which transferred a total of four images to ground control.

In two of the images the golden spacecraft can be seen against the background of a pinkish landscape sprinkled with bright-white frost patches, which the CNSA identified as ice caps.

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“Solar wings and radar antennas are in good condition,” the agency said on its website on Saturday.

Unlike the ice on the earth’s polar regions, Martian ice is a mixture of frozen carbon dioxide and water.

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