Chinese Probe Sends Back Its First Picture of Mars

Launched in July, China's probe "Tianwen-1" is now approaching an orbit around Mars - and it's sent back its first picture. Slashdot reader AmiMoJo spotted this report in the Guardian:The photo released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) shows geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on the Martian surface. The photo was taken from about 1.4m miles away (2.2m kilometres), said the CNSA, with the spacecraft since reaching 1.1 million kilometres from the planet... The five-tonne Tianwen-1 includes a Mars orbiter, lander, and a rover that will study the planet's soil. China hopes to land the rover in May in Utopia, a massive impact basin... China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space programme and first sent a human into space in 2003. It is aiming to assemble a space station in Earth orbit by 2022.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.