China has created the most perfect color map of Mars
September 30, 20243 Mins Read
Recently, the Chinese space research agency CNSA published a color map of the red planet Mars. The map was created by collecting images from the Mars mission Tianwen-1. Recently, a research paper on this has been published in the journal Science Bulletin .

Mars

According to this paper, each pixel of this new map of Mars covers about 76 meters of Mars. Earlier, scientists were able to show 1 kilometer or more of the planet per pixel. The matter of showing 1 km area in 1 pixel is called 1 km spatial or spatial resolution. It is the highest resolution map of Mars in that respect.

The Tianwen-1 mission was launched on July 23, 2020. Then on February 10, 2021, the spacecraft reached the orbit of Mars. After about three months in orbit, the Chinese rover reached the ground of Mars. After the United States and the former Soviet Union, China became the third country to land on Mars. It is the first mission of China National Space Administration (CNSA) Planetary Exploration of China or Tianwen project. The project aims to conduct robotic missions to the planets of the solar system.

The main spacecraft of the Tianwen-1 mission consisted of an orbiter, two deployable cameras, a remote camera, a lander and Zhaorong rover. In addition to these, there were 14 state-of-the-art scientific instruments. The aim of this mission is to study the topography, internal structure, atmospheric properties and water of Mars.

Tianwen-1 has been exploring Mars for about 1,300 days. At this time, the spacecraft took about 14 thousand 757 pictures of Mars while staying in the orbit of the red planet. Using those images, a group of CNSA researchers created the map. The research team was led by Professor Li Chunlai of the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC). He was a scientist and researcher from several institutions in China as a colleague.

Those images taken using Tianwen-1's Moderate Resolution Camera, or MORIC, had a spatial resolution of between 57 and 197 meters. In addition, a total of 325 strips of data, or narrow-angle images, of the entire Mars were captured using the Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer in visible and oblique light. The spatial resolution of these images was between 265 and 800 meters.

Using these images and data, Professor Li Chunlai and his colleagues created a map of Mars. They use bundle adjustment technology to improve the quality of the map. Through this, the 3D model and camera settings can be further refined. This technique is very effective in eliminating the error between the position of the object in the 2D image and the position of the object in the 3D model. Eliminating these errors is very important to create perfect maps, virtual reality environments, especially robot movement environments.

Any location error on this map of Mars is less than 1 pixel. The color of Mars is mapped using data from the Mars Mineralogical Spectrometer. All in all, it is currently the most complete and largest map of Mars.

It is undoubtedly a major achievement in the history of human space exploration. Those involved believe that this new map will be very useful in conducting human expeditions to Mars in the future. The US and Chinese space agencies are planning to conduct human missions to Mars within the next two decades.