Chinanews, Hefei, May 16th (Liu Honghe and Chu Weiwei) Mars, I'm here!
On May 15, China’s self-developed Mars rover "Tianwen-1" successfully landed on the Utopia Plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
The new generation of "Chang'e Steel" developed by the Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institute of Material Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute of Solid State") successfully ensured that the "Tianwen No. 1" successfully passed the "terrorist nine minutes" and successfully landed on Mars surface.
On May 16, the reporter came to the Solid State Institute to reveal the "Mars Story" of the new generation of "Chang'e Steel".
In the laboratory of the Institute of Solid State, Zhao Modi, an assistant researcher of the Institute of Solid State, showed reporters two kinds of cushioning elements made of "Chang'e Steel".
"They are the pull rod and the force limiting rod. During the landing of the'Tianwen No. 1', it absorbs energy through its own elongated deformation and bending deformation, and'sacrifices oneself' to protect the probe from landing smoothly."
"The two kinds of cushioning elements are respectively distributed on the detector's'auxiliary leg' and the connection between the detector and the'leg.' Although the appearance of'Chang'e Steel' looks the same as ordinary steel, its actual effect is irrelevant. Underestimate." Zhao Modi said, "Although ordinary steel is very hard, there is no way to produce a large deformation, and the plasticity is less than 30%.'Chang'e Steel' has extremely high toughness and energy absorption, and the plasticity can reach more than 100%. , Not only can it be very hard, but it can also be stretched very long like a rubber band,'hard and soft'."
Pictured: "Tianwen No. 1" model and the tie rods and force limiting rods on the "auxiliary legs" of the landing patrol.
Photo by Chu Weiwei
It is understood that the "Tianwen No. 1" landing process needs to decelerate from about 20,000 kilometers per hour to zero, successively undergo aerodynamic deceleration and parachute deceleration. When it is about 100 meters from the surface of Mars, it enters the hovering phase, and then the patrol must land. It took about 9 minutes to reach the surface of Mars under the protection of the landing buffer mechanism.
"The buffer rod plays a role at the moment of landing, can be extended by 110%, absorb the impact energy during landing through deformation, and protect other components." Zhao Modi said.
It is understood that "Chang'e Steel" is a new material developed by the Institute of Solid State in accordance with the needs of China's Chang'e probe for soft landing on the lunar surface, and has successively guaranteed the smooth implementation of the "Chang'e-3" and "Chang'e-4" missions.
In the Mars exploration mission, in addition to the use of the buffer rod, the force-limiting rod product was used for the first time to replace part of the imported aluminum honeycomb design, which truly realized the complete autonomy of the landing buffer system of China's deep space probe.
"This material can fully meet the buffer performance requirements of'Tianwen No. 1'.'Tianwen No. 1'only uses our buffer components, instead of foreign-developed components, and fully realizes localization." Zhao Modi said, "The material has a broad application prospect, such as the automobile industry, construction industry, machinery industry, etc., and it will play an important role in manned space missions in the future." (End)