Spacecraft acquires images of Mars

BEIJING: An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported yesterday.

China’s Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February last year, on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.

Among the images taken from space were China’s first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet’s water resources are locked.

In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European Space Agency had discovered water under the ice of the planet’s south pole. Locating subsurface water is key to determining the planet’s potential for life.