China publishes new datasets obtained by Mars, lunar probes

BEIJING -- China published two new batches of data on Monday, obtained by its Mars probe and lunar probe.

The scientific data obtained by three scientific payloads including a high-definition camera on Tianwen 1, the country's Mars probe, from January to March this year, have been released, amounting to nearly 68 gigabytes, according to the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).

This is the probe's fifth data release. Tianwen 1, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, entered the Mars orbit on Feb 10, 2021, becoming the country's first probe to orbit the planet.

Also, the NAOC team published the 38th scientific data acquired by four payloads mounted on the lander and rover of the Chang'e 4 probe between April 15 and June 24 this year. The data is sized at 2.7 gigabytes.

The Chang'e 4 probe, launched on Dec 8, 2018, made the first-ever soft landing on the Von Karman Crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon on Jan 3, 2019.