The reporter learned from the National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center that the "Tianwen-1" orbiter and the "Zhurong" Mars rover passed the first day transit safely and resumed scientific exploration.
Beginning in late September 2021, the Earth and Mars move to the sides of the sun and the three are almost in a straight line. This phenomenon is called solar transit.
During this period, the communication between the Mars rover and the earth was disturbed by the sun's electromagnetic radiation, which was unstable or even interrupted.
During the transit period, the "Tianwen-1" orbiter and the "Zhurong" Mars rover entered autonomous operation mode and suspended scientific exploration work.
In order to find out the actual impact of Riling, the engineering development team continued to carry out measurement and control link tracking tests, and for the first time obtained measured data on the interference of deep-space measurement and control communications under Riling, and accumulated first-hand data and engineering experience for subsequent tasks to deal with Riling.
The astronomical phenomenon of occultation during the solar transit provides scientists with a rare opportunity to observe the solar transit occultation.
The Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, the National Space Science Center and other units, in conjunction with the European VLBI Institute, the University of Tasmania in Australia and other institutions, used Wettzell and Yebes located in Shanghai, Kunming, Urumqi, and Europe. ), Medicina, Russia’s Svetloe, Zelenchukskaya, Badary, Australia’s Hobart, Case ( Kath), Yarra (Yarra) and South Africa’s Hartebeesthoek (Hartebeesthoek) and other places of the radio telescopes, the "Tianwen-1" orbiter and the "Mars Express" orbiter (MEX) carried out the same beam day Ling observation.
A total of about 5 terabytes of data have been obtained in this observation. At present, the parties are conducting joint research. By analyzing the influence of the electromagnetic wave signals transmitted by the two detectors back to the earth through the solar wind, the fluctuations in the interplanetary electron density caused by the intrinsic turbulence of the solar wind are studied. Scientific issues such as the relationship between solar wind micro-turbulence and macro-wind speed.
A few days ago, the solar transit phenomenon has ended, and the measurement and control communication between the probe and the earth has returned to normal. According to the telemetry data, the "Tianwen No. 1" is in normal condition during the solar transit.
The orbiter will enter the remote sensing mission orbit in early November 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, while taking into account the development of the rover mission Phase of relay communication.
(CCTV reporter Xu Jing, China National Space Administration, Geng Yan and Chen Gang)