Planet Mars: A Cloudy Protonilus Mensae | China's Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter

Planet Mars: A Cloudy Protonilus Mensae | China's Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter

Protonilus Mensae is an area of Mars in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. It is centered on the coordinates of 43.86° N and 49.4° E. Its western and eastern longitudes are 37° E and 59.7° E. North and south latitudes are 47.06° N and 39.87° N. Protonilus Mensae is between Deuteronilus Mensae and Nilosyrtis Mensae; all lie along the Martian dichotomy boundary. Its name was adapted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1973.

The surface here is described as fretted terrain. This terrain contains cliffs, mesas, and wide flat valleys. Surface features are believed to have been caused by debris-covered glaciers.

This image was captured by the China National Space Administration's Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft that has been orbiting and operating at Mars since February 2021. This robotic probe originally contained six elements: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, a lander, a remote camera, and the Zhurong rover. The spacecraft, with a total mass of nearly five tons, was one of the heaviest probes launched to Mars and carried 14 scientific instruments. China is the second country after the United States to make a successful soft landing and to establish communication from the Martian surface. This is the first in a series of planned interplanetary missions undertaken by CNSA as part of China's planetary exploration program. 

Image details:
Mosaic of 3 images created using data processed from moon.bao.ac.cn/
Mission: CNSA Tianwen 1
Camera: MoRIC
Time: 2022-03-01T23:50:27.510000Z
Longitude: 39.206461
Latitude: 46.255012
Altitude: 394 km
North is up
Map of the area: maps.planet.fu-berlin.de/#map=7/2421621.05/2532685.46

Image Credit: CNSA/CLEP/PEC/MoRIC
Image Processing: Andrea Luck
Release Date: May 4, 2025

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