Complete the established detection mission and obtain about 10GB of raw scientific data

"Zhurong" 100 days of Mars

　　Our reporter Feng Hua

　　"People's Daily" (13th edition on August 31, 2021)

Core reading

　　As of August 30, the "Zhu Rong" rover has been traveling on the surface of Mars for 100 days.

In 100 days, "Zhu Rong" traveled 1064 meters south of the landing site, carrying 6 scientific payloads, and obtained about 10GB of original scientific data.

At present, the rover is in good condition and has sufficient energy. It will continue to drive towards the ancient land-sea junction south of the landing site to obtain richer scientific exploration data.

　　The "Zhurong" rover has been traveling on the surface of Mars for 100 days!

　　On August 30, the National Space Administration announced that my country’s first Mars exploration mission successfully landed on Mars on May 15 A scientific exploration mission has been carried out on the surface of Mars for 100 days on August 30.

　　What is the current state of the rover?

In 100 days, what work has "Zhurong" done?

What challenges will be faced on Mars in the future, and what inspection missions will continue to be carried out?

A total of 1064 meters has been driven, and the current state is good and the energy is sufficient

　　The design life of the "Zhurong" rover is 90 Mars days (92 Earth days).

According to experts, during the patrol and exploration, the "Zhurong" rover operated in an efficient detection mode of "a cycle for seven days, a plan per day, and detection every day".

　　Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of my country's first Mars exploration mission project, said that at present, the "Zhu Rong" rover has successfully completed 90 Mars days of the scheduled exploration mission and has entered the stage of expanding missions.

The flight control of the "Tianwen No. 1" mission has also shifted from centralized flight control to the long-term operation stage.

"As of August 30, the rover had traveled a total of 1064 meters south of the landing site. At present, the rover is in good condition and has sufficient energy." Zhang Rongqiao said.

　　Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the probe system for my country’s first Mars exploration mission, said that since the “Tianwen-1” probe landed on Mars, the “Zhurong” rover has gradually established working conditions. After completing the status inspection and environmental confirmation, it will be on May 22. Japan successfully sailed on the surface of Mars and began to patrol and explore.

At present, the "Zhurong" rover is in the local summer in the inspection area, and the weather environment is good. All the payloads carried by the rover are started for detection.

　　Regarding the performance of the rover, Sun Zezhou rated it as excellent.

"This time the rover also has some new technical applications in thermal control. For example, we use solar collectors to convert solar energy into heat, so that the rover can be in a relatively ideal position on the surface of Mars, especially during the fire night. The temperature level. Judging from the current operating conditions in orbit, it is very consistent with our expectations." Sun Zezhou said.

　　"During the patrol and exploration process of the Mars rover, the orbiter has also played an important role and played an outstanding role." Sun Zezhou said that the orbiter has completed multiple orbit maintenance and stably runs on the relay communication orbit, which is a great role for the rover. Carrying out relay communication, and at the same time, by optimizing the working mode of the equipment on the adjuster, successfully coping with the energy problem caused by the shadow occlusion of Mars.

"The orbiter is mainly based on data relay during this period, providing the best relay service for the Mars rover. In addition to maintaining the relay orbit every day, it also needs to relay data to the Mars rover. During this process, the various states of the orbiter and the performance states of various product systems are very stable." Sun Zezhou said.

　　It is understood that as of August 30, the orbiter has been in orbit for 403 days, about 392 million kilometers from the earth.

At present, the functions of the orbiter and the Mars rover are good, the energy is balanced, and the systems are working normally.

In response to the new modes and new states that may appear in the subsequent stages of the two vehicles in orbit, the development team reviewed and improved the flight plan, and carried out necessary ground verification and simulation exercises to ensure the stability and reliability of the two vehicles in orbit.

Carrying 6 scientific payloads to provide data support for studying Mars

　　Liu Jianjun, chief designer of the ground application system for my country’s first Mars exploration mission probe, introduced that after the “Tianwen-1” probe entered the Mars orbit in February this year, the orbiter conducted a detailed inspection of the landing area in the orbit and obtained high resolution. Terrain data, on the one hand, provides support for the selection of landing sites and landing on Mars. On the other hand, through the analysis of the geological background, the "Zhurong" Mars rover has developed three different phases of scientific exploration plan: long-term, mid-term and short-term.

　　The "Zhurong" rover is equipped with six scientific payloads including navigation terrain cameras, multispectral cameras, surface composition detectors, surface magnetic field detectors, subsurface detection radars, and meteorological measuring instruments.

During the patrol and exploration of Mars, all six scientific payloads were turned on.

　　"We probably have to drive every day. There are mainly two scientific instruments at work, one is a subsurface detection radar, and the other is a weather measuring instrument. You can watch while walking. There are also 4 scientific instruments. The exploration was started when the rover stopped to perform in-position exploration. So far, six scientific instruments have acquired a total of about 10GB of raw data." Liu Jianjun said.

　　According to reports, the division of these scientific loads is roughly as follows: the navigation terrain camera obtains terrain and landform data along the way, supports the path planning of the rover and the selection of detection targets, and is used to carry out morphological features and geological structure research; the subsurface detection radar obtains the subsurface layers Structural data is used for shallow surface structure analysis to search for possible ground water ice; meteorological measuring instrument obtains meteorological data such as temperature, air pressure, wind speed, etc., which is used to carry out research on atmospheric physical characteristics; surface magnetic field detector obtains local magnetic field data, and surrounds With the use of a magnetometer to explore the evolution of the Martian magnetic field; surface composition detectors and multi-spectral cameras acquire spectral data of typical targets such as specific rocks and soils for analysis and research on the composition of elements and minerals.

　　"In terms of scientific data, the data obtained by these six scientific payloads have completed relevant processing and quality verification, and have formed standard data products. The China Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Network has opened data applications to domestic scientific research teams recently. Release scientific data in batches on a monthly basis," said Liu Jianjun.

　　According to Liu Jianjun, the rover's route is to travel to the ancient land south of the landing site, where the altitude is constantly rising, with rocks, sand dunes, impact craters, trenches, and suspected mud volcanoes as targets for detection.

"These are all exploration targets that scientists are very interested in, and they can provide new data support for the topography of Mars. For example, the bright crescent-shaped sand dunes photographed by the rover are different from the dark sand dunes previously detected abroad. It helps us to further understand the environment, climate and evolution process of Mars. Another example is that the meteorological measuring instrument has obtained the latest data such as the pressure and wind speed on the surface of Mars, which have updated our understanding of the detection area. For example, the air pressure, we usually think of Mars before The air pressure on the Earth is about 1% of our planet, so it is about 1/120 measured now.” Liu Jianjun said that the accumulation of a large amount of data will provide data support for scientists to understand and study Mars more deeply in the future.

Will continue to drive south of the landing site, and is expected to start a difficult detection

　　After completing the established exploration missions, what other scientific explorations will the "Zhurong" Mars rover conduct?

　　Sun Zezhou told reporters that the rover has entered the stage of expanding missions.

"According to the current working status of the Mars rover, we will continue to maintain an efficient detection mode and continue to drive towards the ancient sea-land junction south of the landing site to obtain scientific exploration data of interested targets; the orbiter will select the opportunity to enter the remote sensing mission orbit and develop the Mars global Remote sensing scientific exploration, taking into account the relay communication of the Mars rover expansion mission stage."

　　Soon, the "Zhu Rong" rover will also usher in the sun transit phenomenon.

Experts explain that from mid-September to late October, Mars and the earth will travel to both sides of the sun, and the three will be almost in a straight line, that is, solar transit will occur.

Due to the influence of the sun's electromagnetic radiation interference, the device-to-ground communication will be interrupted for about 50 days, the orbiter and the rover will switch to a safe mode and stop the detection work.

　　"After the occurrence of the sun transit phenomenon, our entire detection plan will need to be adjusted, and we must switch to the orbiter to achieve global orbit, while taking into account the patrol and detection traces of the Mars rover. This is our first time to achieve the overall mission of'circumnavigation, patrol, and patrol'. A comprehensive consideration. The follow-up engineering system will continue to improve, and strive to obtain more effective detection data for our scientific research." Zhang Rongqiao said.

　　It is understood that after the end of the solar transit, the orbiter will select the opportunity to enter the remote sensing mission orbit to carry out global remote sensing exploration of Mars to obtain scientific data such as Mars morphology and geological structure, surface material composition and soil type distribution, atmospheric ionosphere, and Martian space environment. At the same time, it takes into account the relay communication of the Mars rover expansion mission stage.

The rover will continue to maintain an efficient detection mode, and is expected to start "highly difficult" detection.

"This time we are relatively conservative in the 90 Martian days. With the progress of follow-up missions, we may be able to do some more extreme tests to accumulate more experience for our follow-up autonomous patrol and detection missions to other extraterrestrial bodies. And technical reserves." Sun Zezhou said.