Mars probe travels 300M km

“天问一号”飞行超3亿千米

China's Tianwen 1 Mars probe had traveled 300 million kilometers as of Tuesday morning, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration said in a statement that the spacecraft¹ was in good condition.

国家航天局发布声明称，截至11月17日凌晨，我国的“天问一号”火星探测器飞行里程突破3亿千米，探测器各系统工作正常。

By Tuesday morning, the robotic probe had flown 116 days in an Earth-Mars transfer trajectory² toward the red planet, about 63.8 million km away from the Earth, it noted³.

截至11月17日，“天问一号”已在地火转移轨道上飞行了116天，距离地球约6380万千米，仍在奔向火星的途中。

The spacecraft is programmed to reach the Martian gravitational field in February and then begin to prepare for landing, which is expected to take place in May.

“天问一号”计划于2021年2月到达火星引力势场，开始做降落的相关准备，预计2021年5月着陆火星表面。

After the landing, it will release a rover to conduct scientific exploration.

着陆后“天问一号”将释放火星车，开展科研探测工作。

Tianwen 1, the country's first independent Mars mission, was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province, opening the nation's planetary exploration program.

7月23日，我国在海南文昌航天发射场，用“长征五号”重型运载火箭成功发射我国首次独立火星探测任务“天问一号”探测器，开启了我国行星探测的序幕。