# China's Mars probe ready for the red planet

China's first Mars mission probe Tianwen-1 has traveled over 400 million km as of Jan. 3 and is expected to enter Mars orbit next month.

Since its launch on Jul. 23, 2020, the probe has traveled through space for 163 days as of Sunday, and is currently located 130 million km from Earth and around 8.3 million km from Mars.

Currently in a stable condition, the probe has captured an image showing both Earth and the moon, and has also taken several selfies. It has so far carried out three orbital corrections, a deep-space maneuver and conducted self-checks on its multiple payloads.

Consisting of an orbiter, lander and rover, the probe aims to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission. This will represent a significant technological leap forward for China in deep space exploration and establish an independent deep-space exploration engineering system to promote sustainable development in this field.