Tianwen-1 orbiter enters remote sensing mission orbit
According to the news from the National Space Administration's Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, on November 8, 2021, the "Tianwen-1" orbiter successfully implemented the fifth near-fire braking, accurately entered the orbit of the remote sensing mission, and carried out the global remote sensing exploration of Mars.
Since the execution of the mission, the "Zhurong" Mars rover has successfully completed the established patrol and detection mission objectives, all in good condition, and continue to carry out the detection mission.
Considering the global remote sensing detection of the orbiter and the relay communication requirements of the Mars rover, the engineering development team optimized the orbit design and determined a remote sensing orbit plan with a near fire point of about 265 kilometers, a far fire point of about 10,700 kilometers, and a period of about 7.08 hours. While ensuring the development of orbiting scientific exploration, it will provide more relay communication support for the Mars rover to improve the efficiency of mission development.
In the remote sensing orbit, seven scientific payloads including mid-resolution cameras, high-resolution cameras, subsurface detection radars, mineral spectrum analyzers, magnetometers, ion and neutral particle analyzers, and energy particle analyzers will be acquired Scientific data such as fire star morphology and geological structure, surface material composition and soil type distribution, atmospheric ionosphere, Martian space environment, etc., focusing on typical landforms and geological units such as craters, volcanoes, canyons, and dry river beds, and implement high-resolution detection.
Up to now, the orbiter has been in orbit for 473 days, the ground fire distance is 384 million kilometers, and the light travel time is 21 minutes and 20 seconds; the rover has worked on the surface of Mars for 174 Mars days and traveled 1,253 meters in total. The two devices are in good condition. The working condition is normal.
Mars rover driving route map
(CCTV reporter Xu Jing and Wu Tianbai, National Space Administration Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, Geng Yan and Chen Gang)