Tianwen-1 At Mars Options

[Ron Hobbs]

Planetary Society's Tianwen-1 page has it on Vimeo. Here is the info:

TIANWEN-1 ENTERS MARS ORBIT This video shows China's Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover entering Mars orbit on 10 February 2021. The spacecraft captured the images 3 seconds apart, and the entire video covers a period of 27 minutes. Video: CNSA/PEC via Andrew Jones

[Quetzalcoatl]

Hello everybody,

Tianwen-1 was now to perform a manoeuvre to move from its equatorial insertion orbit to a polar orbit with the objective of establishing a map of the Martian surface that will be used for the selection of the landing site.

https://twitter.com/guo_linli/status/1361114922277425153

TianWen-1 successfully carried out this maneuver :

https://twitter.com/guo_linli/status/1361277655069327364

[Guest_Steve5304_*]

Hello everybody,

Tianwen-1 was now to perform a manoeuvre to move from its equatorial insertion orbit to a polar orbit with the objective of establishing a map of the Martian surface that will be used for the selection of the landing site.

https://twitter.com/guo_linli/status/1361114922277425153

TianWen-1 successfully carried out this maneuver :

https://twitter.com/guo_linli/status/1361277655069327364

This is really cool.

Im so excited to see where China decides to put the lander down

[kenny]

Tianwen-1's orbit has been adjusted further. The South China Morning Post reports that on Wednesday February 24, two weeks after initial orbit insertion, Tianwen-1 entered what they described as "its parking orbit", quoting the space agency CNSA.

"Each complete orbit will take Tianwen, or “Heavenly Questions”, two Martian days – or slightly longer than two days on Earth – with the lowest and highest points being 280km (174 miles) and 59,000km above the planet’s surface.

During its time in orbit, Tianwen-1 will use its cameras and spectrometer to carry out a detailed investigation of the Martian landscape and weather at its intended landing site before a planned touchdown in May.

“Currently the status of equipment is normal and all flight control systems are working as planned,” CNSA said.

It also acknowledged Perseverance's successful landing at Jezero Crater.

South China Morning Post Feb 24 report

[SulliedGoon]

Will we see orbital pictures from NASA of
the eventual landing or does the
ban on cooperation extend to even passive
activities such as imaging from orbit?

[Hungry4info]

LRO has imaged each of the landed Chang'e missions, so presumably MRO can image the Tianwen-1 lander.

[mcaplinger]

LRO has imaged each of the landed Chang'e missions, so presumably MRO can image the Tianwen-1 lander.

I don't know if it applied to LROC imaging, but there needed to be congressional approval for at least some LRO support. See https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/...ion-with-china/

[Hungry4info]

From https://weibo.com/5386897742/K4AVS2zt8?ssl_...nd1614824040705

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Explorer1]

Is the low sun angle why the polar cap isn't bright white like we see in other images (both Hubble and other orbiters?) Or are others "enhanced" and this one is not?

[mcaplinger]

Is the low sun angle why the polar cap isn't bright white like we see in other images (both Hubble and other orbiters?)

Pretty typical for this season. See https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980924.html for example.

[Phil Stooke]

The high resolution image with the small cones on the left edge is at 24.74 N, 110.17 E. I have not found the other location yet. This is right on a candidate site.

CTX image: CTX-J05_046929_2048_XN_24N250W



Phil

[Quetzalcoatl]

Will we see orbital pictures from NASA of
the eventual landing or does the
ban on cooperation extend to even passive
activities such as imaging from orbit?

Hello,

I don't think the ban on cooperation extends also to innocent espionage activities.

[mcaplinger]

I don't think the ban on cooperation extends also to innocent espionage activities.

Not sure what point you're trying to make. To image during the landing, the MRO team would have to know the time and place weeks or months in advance, adjust the spacecraft's orbit, and plan the images. If CNSA doesn't make that information public on that timescale, it's not happening. Post-landing imaging might be easier if there was some information about where to look.

[JRehling]

Is the low sun angle why the polar cap isn't bright white

To add a bit more detail, during a long winter night, a martian polar cap accumulates CO2 ice. Meanwhile, the other hemisphere is in summer, and warm and kicking up dust clouds. As atmospheric dust settles, it creates a thin layer of dust over the otherwise white polar ice of the winter cap. Southern summer is now over and we're seeing the northern cap for the first time in months. Next, the "spider" phenomenon will begin wherein sublimating CO2 ice will pop small holes in the dusty cover. Eventually, the CO2 will be gone and there'll be a dirty H2O ice cap at minimum size. And when that goes through martian autumn, new CO2 ice (and H2O frost) will make the cap grow big and white.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Not sure what point you're trying to make. To image during the landing, the MRO team would have to know the time and place weeks or months in advance, adjust the spacecraft's orbit, and plan the images. If CNSA doesn't make that information public on that timescale, it's not happening. Post-landing imaging might be easier if there was some information about where to look.

Of course.
I have never said that we could see such images but simply that a cooperation ban is completely foreign to that.