The Big Bang of Science
China’s first Mars exploration journey is about to start
Rockets, measurement and control systems are all in place
The first Mars rover from China, Tianwen-1, is about to leave.
The National Space Administration announced not long ago that my country’s first Mars exploration mission, the planetary exploration project Tianwen-1 mission, is scheduled to be implemented at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China from late July to early August. A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily learned that up to now, multiple systems including rockets, measurement and control, etc. have been in place.
On July 17, the Long March 5 Yaosi carrier rocket for this mission was transported vertically to the launch area. This is the first practical launch of the Long March 5 series of carrier rockets, and it is also the first time that my country's carrier rocket has carried out an Earth-Mars transfer orbit launch mission.
Experts from the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation told reporters that in the follow-up, after completing the rocket function inspection and joint testing and confirming the final state, the rocket will be filled with propellant and launch as planned.
The reporter learned from the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center that, in order to safely and smoothly send my country's first Mars probe to Mars, the Beijing Flight Control Center has carried out joint debugging and trial exercises as planned. Currently, preparations for various flight control missions are progressing smoothly.
In my country's first Mars exploration mission, the Beijing Flight Control Center served as the command and decision center, control computing center, data processing center, information exchange center and long-term aircraft management center. As the mission flight control center, the Beijing Flight Control Center also undertakes tasks such as ground fire transfer orbit control, Mars surround capture control, fire surface teleoperation control, and orbiter operation management.
According to Li Jian, director of Beijing Flight Control Center, this mission will fully adopt a new generation of flight control software and hardware systems. Recently, the center's scientific research personnel have organized and carried out multiple reliability tests, stress tests and stability tests, and completed the software The tripartite evaluation, and through various joint debugging exercises, tested the functional performance and coordination of the new generation of software systems and localized hardware platforms, laying the foundation for the completion of the first Mars exploration flight control mission.
At the same time, the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center has also carried out an adaptive transformation of the ground measurement and control communication system. At present, the renovation work and various targeted tests have been fully completed, and the performance indicators meet the mission needs of "Tianwen No. 1".
According to experts from the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center, once the "Tianwen-1" Mars probe enters the ground fire transfer orbit, the Kashgar Deep Space Station and the Jiamusi Deep Space Station of the Xi'an Satellite Measurement and Control Center will provide full measurement and control support for it. The farthest detection distance of the Mars rover is nearly 400 million kilometers, and the ground fire transfer time is nearly 7 months, which is an unprecedented test for the measurement and control communication system. To this end, the Xi’an Satellite Measurement and Control Center focused on upgrading the software and hardware of the two deep-space stations' frequency integrated systems, multi-functional digital basebands, monitoring and control systems, and providing more stable and powerful monitoring and control guarantees for mission execution.
China's first Mars exploration mission was approved in January 2016. The mission's goal is to achieve Mars circumnavigation, landing and patrol detection through a single launch, and to obtain scientific data for Mars exploration, which will take the first step in my country's planetary exploration.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui Source: China Youth Daily