Mars bound spacecraft Tianwen-1 captures stunning pics of Earth and Moon

At almost 750,000 miles away from its planet of origin Earth, the Chinese spacecraft Tianwen-1 captured a stunning view of the Earth and moon as it aced its first trajectory correction maneuver on its Martian journey. China’s spacecraft bound for Mars speed away in the space with its orbiter, lander, and rover. While the rover’s landing attempt is estimated to occur around April or May 2021, the vehicle will start orbiting the Red Planet in February 2021, according to China National Space Administration’s release. 

On July 27, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office observed the Tianwen-1 vehicle as it was running a program to scan large patches of the sky for astronomers to map the object’s path at a facility at Mauna Loa on Hawaii Island. The observatory was working on Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) which identifies celestial objects in the space. At the time, the spacecraft was about 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) away from Earth, and its optical navigation sensor captured a crescent-shaped Earth and the smaller, more distant moon. The monochrome image depicts the feature of the Earth against the dark, black oceanic background. 

[The Earth and Moon imaged by Tianwen-1 on July 27, 2020, when it was 750,000 miles away from its planet of origin.Image: © CNSA]

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20 seconds maneuver in space

Tianwen-1 launched for its Mars mission on July 23 aboard Long March 5 rocket. It set on a trajectory to Mars 36 minutes later, as per CNSA. On August 1, at sharp 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) the spacecraft started 20 seconds maneuver to optimize the trajectory when it was 1,860,000 miles (3 million km) away from Earth. The stunning black and white image recorded then show the crescent moon and distant Earth captured on high- and medium-resolution cameras deployed to study Mars.  

[Tianwen-1: China successfully launches probe in first Mars mission. Credit: CNSA]

Elysium Mons for rover's landing 

Tianwen-1 which translates to "questions to heaven" was launched from Wenchang on Hainan Island, as per a report published in the journal Nature Astronomy which was composed by team members of China's Tianwen-1 Mars mission. China has isolated an area stretching from Isidis Planitia across to the big volcano Elysium Mons for the landing where NASA's Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976.  According to the study, China’s rover will operate for at least 90 Martian days and as of now, it’s the 20th lunar day on the moon. 

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