China National Space Administration and Chinese Academy of Sciences unveil color map
The release is timed to coincide with the celebration of Cosmonautics Day inChina. On April 24, 1970, the country successfully launched its own satellite into orbit for the first time. All images are processed in accordance with mapping standards and provide a spatial resolution of 76 m, the authors of the study note.
Global map of the surface of Mars. Image: CNSA
Maps include several options for displaying the surface of Mars: orthogonal projection of the eastern and western hemispheres, Robinson projection, Mercator projection and azimuthal projection.
To create the map, the researchers used 14757 images taken by the remote sensing camera on the Tianwen-1 orbiter. The images were taken during eight months of observation: from November 2021 to July 2022. Previously, the China National Space Administration reported that the orbiter had to circle Mars 1,344 times to obtain images of the entire planet.
Orthographic projection of the hemispheres of Mars. Image: CNSA
Tianwen-1 is China's first spacecraftmission to explore Mars. It consists of the orbiter of the same name and the descent module with the Zhuzhong rover. The robotic interplanetary station reached the Red Planet in February 2021 and has been operating in its orbit ever since.
Global map of the surface of Mars in various projections. Image: CNSA
Mars rover "Zhuzhong" landed on the surfaceMars three months later - in May 2021. The rover's main scientific mission was completed in the first 90 days, after which the China National Space Administration extended the device's life and continued exploration of the planet.
According to NASA satellite observations, since September2022, the rover is in sleep mode and is no longer moving. But the results of previous observations of "Zhuzhong" made it possible, among other things, to investigate the composition of geological rocks hidden under the surface of the Utopia plain.
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