4
$\begingroup$

Thus far, CSNA has announced the landing location as 109.7 E, 25.1 N. On Mars, 0.1 degree is about five km.

Most Mars landers/rovers have been found in orbital imagery, and their lat/lon measured to considerably greater precision. I can't find any indication on the Interwebs that that has happened here.

Edit: @BrendanLuke15 points to a PDS link for current Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) HiRISE imagery which says that the current 2021 June 1 release (057C) covers up to May 1 2021. Roughly a month latency, so we might get imagery of the May 2021 Zhurong landing later in 2021.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
4

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

Breaking News! (01:24 UTC June 8, 2021)

China releases new Mars image taken by Tianwen-1 probe, CCTV (English) Article shows before and after picture of the landing and associated debris:

Zhu Rong on Mars

...taken by a high-resolution camera installed on the orbiter of Tianwen-1 at 6 p.m. on June 2 (Beijing Time)

Now to feature map this with HiRISE data for some more detailed coordinates (if there is HiRISE data!)... (not needed now!)

Edit: HiRISE to the rescue!

This answer to Is there independent evidence that China landed a robot on Mars in May 2021? links to a HiRISE image of the lander and rover:

The PDS label indicates the following:

MAP_RESOLUTION               = 118423.85738967 <PIX/DEG>
MAP_SCALE                    = 0.5 <METERS/PIXEL>
MAXIMUM_LATITUDE             = 25.243164747097 <DEG>
MINIMUM_LATITUDE             = 24.962425945939 <DEG>
[...]
EASTERNMOST_LONGITUDE        = 109.9879465135 <DEG>
WESTERNMOST_LONGITUDE        = 109.84991465275 <DEG>

I linearly interpreted the pixel position of the lander using the high-res image (RED channel) to find:

Lander: 25.0644°N, 109.9249°E

Rover: 25.0641°N, 109.9251°E

(0.0001° of latitude on Mars is ~6m)

They are approximately 23 meters away from one another in this image taken on June 6, 2021.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
4
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I want to know why there is a flock of seagulls flying over the site, or are those snow drifts? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 0:01
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @uhoh I want to call them 'whales' because the other term I'm imagining is not as appropriate! Very unique and they are everywhere in this region (a good scale reference as well, they are all similarly sized) $\endgroup$
    – BrendanLuke15
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 0:10
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ follow-up question: What are these Martian space-whale (or seagull) shaped features? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 14:02
  • $\begingroup$ @uhoh That oughta get us a position! It may yet be a little tricky to match the crater patterns, especially if this isn't a north-up image. (Though the "sand dunes"/gulls ought to help orient us... unless they're a trick of lighting, showing that the sun was below and slightly to the left. But the consistent size of the objects makes that seem unlikely, and supports the dune theory.) Good of them to indicate the scale, though. $\endgroup$
    – Bill Gray
    Commented Jun 9, 2021 at 17:33

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.