China’s Mars reconnaissance vehicle “Tienvın-1” performed its last maneuver before landing on the Red Planet.

Tienvın-1 made the final orbital correction to determine its position prior to landing on the Red Planet, according to the Xinhua agency. The reconnaissance vehicle is expected to land in three months.

Tienvın-1, which will complete a tour in its new orbit in 2 Mars days (49 hours and 14 minutes), will examine the topography of the Red Planet, draw a surface map and collect information for the predetermined landing area during this period.

The reconnaissance vehicle is expected to land on Mars in May or June

Tienvın-1, which left the world on 23 July 2020, performed 202 daily flights until it entered Mars orbit, and the vehicle, which made 4 orbital corrections during this period, traveled 475 million kilometers.

Tienvin-1 entered an orbit about 400 kilometers from the surface of Mars on February 10th.

Communication with the reconnaissance vehicle, which has an “orbit module”, “Mars landing module” and “surface vehicle”, is via a radio telescope in Tiencin, in the north of the country, with a delay of approximately 10 minutes.

Tianjin-1 is expected to land on the Red Planet in May or June.

The mission of “Tienv”, which means “to seek the truth in the heavens” in Chinese, takes its name from the lines of the Chinese poet Zhu Yuen, who lived in the 4th century BC.

In recent years, China has emerged as the new power in the space race led by the USA and Russia with its ambitious steps towards Moon and Mars exploration missions, satellite technology and manned space expeditions.

Collecting samples from the Earth’s satellite, “Zhang-5”, which the country sent to the Moon, returned to Earth on December 17, 2020. China was the third country to successfully complete this exploration mission and collect samples from the Moon.