The Chinese space agency released video images of its “Tianwen-1” probe flying on Mars on Friday, February 12, two days after it successfully orbited the red planet.

On video broadcast by public television channel CCTV, the planet’s surface stands out against the black sky. According to the official China New Agency, white craters are visible on the surface of the planet, which is examined for a period of one day.

Amid diplomatic and technological rivalries with the United States, China has opened up a new field of competition with an ambitious space program, which aims to establish manned space stations by 2022 and send an astronaut to the moon on the horizon. .

“Tianwen-1” (“Question for Sky-1 in Chinese”) is made up of three elements: an orbiter (which will stay around the star), a lander (which must land on Mars) and a remote-controlled Robot.

The Tianwen-1 was launched in July last year with an American and Emirati probe.

The Emirati probe, named “Al-Amal” (“Hope” in French or “Hope” in English), a historic success for the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission, on Tuesday, the day before the Chinese investigation.

Ambitious, China in this first independent effort hopes to achieve almost everything the United States has achieved in several Mars missions since the 1960s: bring a probe into orbit, a lander, and then bring out a remote-controlled robot Analyze the Martian surface.