Though it's not as easy1 to get details on Chinese missions in English, it seems that Tianwen-1 is in a 12,000 x 256 km highly eccentric orbit around Mars, with its hi res cameras able to resolve 0.5 meters during "periMars"2. If so that makes the semimajor axis $(256 + 3396 + 12,000 + 3396)/2 = 9524$ km and with $GM=4.283 \times 10^{4} \ km^3/s^2$ that makes the period 7.8 hours, or not quite Mars' sidereal day of 24.62 hours divided by three.
Question: Does it turn out that the period is a little longer than the number above and the orbit is much closer to repeat ground track3 over the proposed landing site than this envelope-back estimate suggests?
Or are the weeks or months of orbit before landing enough to scan the area over time by "filling in the blanks" over successive passes?
- 1 Where can I find access to information provided by CNSA and Chinese scientists and reputable science authors?
- 2 this answer to Will the HiRes camera of the Chinese orbiter be capable of seeing the shadows of the landers and rovers on Mars?
- 3 Are there terms for Earth orbits with rational number multiples of 1 sidereal day?