China's Tianwen-1 lowers its orbit around Mars to prepare for rover landing - Space.com

China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft has trimmed its orbit around Mars to allow the spacecraft to analyze the chosen landing region on the Red Planet.

Tianwen-1, China's first independent interplanetary mission, consists of an orbiter and rover, which have been in Mars orbit as a single spacecraft since Feb.

The mission orbiter is now firing up its camera and science payloads, preparing to assess the landscape and dust conditions at the primary landing site, situated within an area of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the Red Planet. .

The "parking orbit" will allow the orbiter to capture sharp images of the targeted landing site, potentially returning images with a resolution of 20 inches (50 centimeters) per pixel.

The Tianwen-1 rover is contained within an aeroshell attached to the orbiter.

This conical structure will both protect and slow the rover during its fiery, hypersonic entry into the Martian atmosphere at the start of the landing attempt!

A supersonic parachute will further slow the rover before retropropulsion engines provide the final deceleration for the soft landing.

The rover is designed to operate for 90 Mars sols (92 Earth days) with the Tianwen-1 orbiter serving to relay communications and data between the rover and the Earth.

Tianwen-1 entered orbit a day after the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe managed the same feat and a week before the spectacular landing of NASA's Perseverance rover.