China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter poses for a selfie taken by a camera released by the spacecraft.
CNSA/CLEP
This story is part of Welcome to Mars, our series exploring the red planet.
The China National Space Administration sure knows how to do selfies right. In 2021, we got an adorable view of the Zhurong rover and Tianwen-1 lander down on Mars. Now we have some dazzling shots of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft orbiting the red planet.
The space agency released a set of images on Saturday, including what it described as “the first full photo of the mission orbiter.” The orbiter released a camera that looked back and captured the spacecraft with Mars in the background. The planet’s icy north pole region is in the view.
The Tianwen-1 mission has several components, including the lander, rover and orbiter. The lander touched down in May 2021 and the rover has been exploring Utopia Planitia, a wide plain in Mars’ northern hemisphere.
The Tianwen-1 orbiter shines in this close-up selfie taken by a camera released from the spacecraft.
CNSA/CLEP
We previously had seen a portrait of the Tianwen-1 spacecraft while it was on its way to Mars in 2020. It seems the new full-orbiter selfie was taken using the same method via the release of a camera that snaps pictures and sends the data back to the spacecraft to then send home to Earth.
The China National Space Administration shared two other orbital images, including a closer look at the shiny spacecraft and a view of the planet’s north polar ice cap, which looks like swirls of white over a dusty red landscape.
Tianwen-1 has been a success for China, and the rover and orbiter continue to collect and relay data back to Earth. The spacecraft selfies give us an unusual view of a mission in progress and highlight how the exploration of Mars has become an international effort.
h/t to Andrew Jones on Twitter.