back to article China says it has photographed all of Mars from orbit

China is claiming that as of Wednesday, its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter has officially photographed the entire Red Planet. And it's shown off new photos of the southern polar cap and a volcano to prove it. "It has acquired the medium-resolution image data covering the whole globe of Mars, with all of its scientific payloads …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A number of Martian dissidents were located and have been sent for retaining

    Claims of pictures of a tank crushing a tripod have been strenuously denied by Beijing

    1. VoiceOfTruth Silver badge

      Innocent people sent to Guantanamo gulag?

      1. Jeff Minter

        Na it's only one way

      2. ICL1900-G3

        Absolutely. EQUALLY unacceptable. The fact that someone else plays fast and loose with democracy does not give the Chinese carte blanche.

    2. Jeff Minter

      "China says it has photographed all of Mars from orbit"

      they muttered in a disgruntled tone

  2. Dr. G. Freeman

    If we ask nicely, could they find Beagle for us ?

    1. Potemkine! Silver badge

      Wasn't it be found already? :~

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Happy

    Good cooperation at last

    This sounds like everyone is working together to get science working well without any political mess. It would be nice if this kind of cooperation continues in future, it's helping everyone learn a little more about our solar system.

  4. Eclectic Man Silver badge

    It would be nice

    if they could keep it running and photograph the whole of Mars again say a year later to show how surface features have changed in the meantime.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It would be nice

      Made in China? Be happy they even made it. Since it's China their pics need to be checked for photo rendering software telltales.

      1. Jeff Minter

        Re: It would be nice

        My 20 year old Made In China laptop is still running. You get what you pay for, not where it's from

  5. steviebuk Silver badge

    Take it with a pinch of salt

    As it comes from the CCP. Its all about face for them. They said they'd eradicated poverty (they haven't) so again, take it with a pinch of salt.

    1. Irony Deficient

      They said they’d eradicated poverty (they haven’t)

      What they’d said is that they’d eradicated extreme poverty, which the World Bank currently defines as an income below 1.90 USD per day in 2011 dollars (which is about 2.46 USD per day in today’s dollars, or about 16.46 CNY per day in today’s yuan).

      The World Bank’s previous defintion of extreme poverty was an income below 1.25 USD per day in 2005 dollars (which is about 1.86 USD per day in today’s dollars, or about 12.43 CNY per day in today’s yuan).

      1. steviebuk Silver badge

        Re: They said they’d eradicated poverty (they haven’t)

        I see the wumaos are out in force.

    2. Jeff Minter

      Re: Take it with a pinch of salt

      It's interesting how the westerners take the high ground whilst still using the same spin they accuse others of

    3. jacquesfrancis

      Re: Take it with a pinch of salt

      The problem is that the Chinese government, like that of Russia, makes no moral distinction between truth and falsehood, a truth that everybody now knows. It means that this announcement may be true or it may be a lie supported by fabricated imagery, the probability being that all or part of it is untrue because they habitually lie about everything.

      1. julian.smith
        Trollface

        Re: Take it with a pinch of salt

        Dumb enough to be an American!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If no pictures, it didn't happen!

      Oh, pictures.

  6. knarf

    Does that mean China owns Mars now?

    Asking for a potato farmer

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Does that mean China owns Mars now?

      After they paint it red US will just write Coca Cola all over

  7. TrickyRicky

    Progress?

    Ooh look! Pictures that aren't as good as those from MRO a dozen years ago.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Progress? Yes

      The MRO moderate resolution camera that mapped the whole planet did so at a 200m resolution.

      The Tianwen-1 moderate resolution camera mapped it at 100m resolution and those are the pictures released today.

      The MRO high resolution camera did photograph about 1% of Mars at 1m resolution and those were the photos that got the most media coverage.

      The Tiawen-1 high resolution camera only gets down to 2.5m and I haven't seen any pictures released.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Progress? Yes

        Thank you for that info. I was going to ask if this had already been done since we have "Google Mars" already. The resolution distinction is the difference, and that's cool :-)

  8. Mark Exclamation

    China says a lot of things, but most of it is deliberate lies and bullshit.

    1. julian.smith
      Boffin

      Wait until you find Donald Trump

      The worm in the apple of American exceptionalism

    2. Sub 20 Pilot

      And this is different to the lies and bullshit spouted by the US and the rest of the West ?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The dedicated engineers and scientists putting this together were committing a constructive act, whatever each individual's politics were.

      Even if viewed a team sports game competition - perfectly allowable - it is far better than war.

  9. crediblywitless

    Can we see Cydonia this way, perhaps? Pyramids, The Face, etc?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nothing there...

    If you look closely.... Nope.. Naff all.

  11. x 7

    where are the rock snake photos?

    If these photos are real, where are the rock snakes?

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