Chinas Tianwen-1 probe sent back its first image of Mars at the weekend with rival missions set to follow closely on its tail.
Mars is about to be at the centre of an extraordinary confluence of interplanetary missions unprecedented in the history of spacefaring.
As well as China, probes will arrive within days from the US, and from the surging space programme of the United Arab Emirates as they take advantage of a window in which the Red Planet is close to Earth.
The black-and-white photo released late on Friday by the China National Space Administration showed geological features including the Schiaparelli crater and the Valles Marineris, a vast stretch of canyons on the Martian surface.
The photo was taken about 2.25 million kilometres (1.4 million miles) from Mars, according to the China National Space Administration, which said the spacecraft was now around 1.12 million kilometres (700,000 miles) from the planet.
The robotic craft ignited one of its engines to make an orbital correction on Friday and was expected to slow down before being captured by Martian gravity around Wednesday, the agency said.
It will follow the UAEs Hope mission, which will be the first of the three to arrive in Martian orbit on Tuesday, to be joined by Nasas massive, car-sized Perseverance lander a week after that.
The chance to reach Mars happens about every 26 months when its orbit lines up with Earth, and all three missions took advantage by launching in July. The UAE and China will become the fifth and sixth space programmes to reach Earths nearest neighbour.
They follow Nasa, the Soviet Union, the European Space Agency and India.
China has poured billions of dollars into its military-led space programme. It has made huge strides in the past decades, sending a human into space in 2003.
China has also laid the groundwork to assemble a space station by 2022 and gain a permanent foothold in Earth orbit, but Mars has proved a challenging target.
The planet has become known as the Bermuda Triangle of space exploration as more than half of the missions sent there have failed.
The UAEs Hope mission will spend two years orbiting the planet and studying its weather. Pete Withnell, Hope programme manager, said: Im optimistic. But I can tell you many of the team are waking up at 2am in a cold sweat just thinking and rethinking about aspects.
Once Chinas five-ton probe goes into orbit it will start readying to land a solar-powered 225kg rover on the surface, which is expected to happen in May. Tianwen will look for ice and make maps.
On February 18, Nasas Perseverance rover will arrive and head straight for the Martian surface. It will be the first Earth-sent machine to land on Mars since 2018.
It will touch down in the potentially treacherous Jezero crater, which is filled with boulders. It was chosen because three billion years ago it was home to a river delta, and Perseverance will search for signs of ancient life
If it lands successfully, Perseverance will drill out half-ounce rock samples, which Nasa hopes to bring back to Earth a decade from now on a later mission.
Irish Independent