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China's Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in
February 2021 on the country's inaugural mission there. A
robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an
orbiter surveyed the planet from space.
Among the images taken from space were China's first photographs
of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet's
water resources are locked.
In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European Space Agency
had discovered water under the ice of the planet's south pole.
Locating subsurface water is key to determining the planet's
potential for life, as well as providing a permanent resource
for any human exploration there.
Other Tianwen-1 images include photographs of the
4,000-kilometre (2,485-mile) long canyon Valles Marineris, and
impact craters of highlands in the north of Mars known as Arabia
Terra.
Tianwen-1 also sent back high-resolution imagery of the edge of
the vast Maunder crater, as well as a top-down view of the
18,000-metre (59,055-foot) Ascraeus Mons, a large shield volcano
first detected by NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft more than five
decades ago.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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