China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced this week that it has completed imaging the entire surface of Mars with its Tianwen-1 orbiter. Mars' orbiter, along with its rover Zhurong, arrived at Mars in February 2021 and has been collecting images of the planet's surface ever since.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter completed 1,344 passes around the red planet and made observations using scientific instruments such as cameras, magnetometers, spectrometers, and radars. After 706 days of operation, the spacecraft's medium-resolution camera captured images of the entire surface, according to the CNSA.

Space journalist Andrew Jones shared images taken by the orbiter on Twitter and show a variety of views of the red planet's surface from orbit, including impact craters.

The Tianwen-1 mission consists of three components: the orbiter that took these images, a lander that carried the rover, and a lander that landed on the surface.

Furthermore, the rover has been busy, having traveled nearly 2,000 meters across the planet in the region of Utopia Planitia.

Despite the colder temperatures in this region, the rover was switched to the dormant mode in May and will be reactivated in December after the temperatures have warmed up.

The rover and the orbiter have now completed their primary missions, but both are still operational, so they can be used for further exploration in the future.

The CNSA reports that it has collected approximately 1,040GB of data from them so far, including orbiter data that has been shared with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Some commentators argue that the sharing of data suggests that the notoriously secretive CNSA is becoming more transparent about its research, as evidenced in a white paper released in 2021 revealing some of its past and future plans.

Furthermore, the CNSA confirmed that its Zhurong rover has successfully conducted in-orbit relay communications with an ESA orbiter, the Mars Express.