China News Service, Shanghai, February 10th, Question: Go to Mars to "work" every year and ask how the No. 1 probe's "performance" is?
Reporter Zheng Yingying
On February 10, 2022, China's Tianwen-1 probe went to Mars to "work" for a year. In this year, it started as a "newcomer on Mars" and has experienced a lot.
A reporter from Chinanews.com interviewed Chu Yingzhi, deputy commander of the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and explained the "first experience of working on Mars" of "Tianwen-1" in the past year.
"Tianwen-1" on-orbit work renderings photo courtesy of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
"Going to work" is not easy to travel "thousands of miles" to work in space
China launched its first autonomous Mars exploration mission on July 23, 2020. The Tianwen-1 probe weighs about 5 tons and consists of an orbiter and a landing rover. The landing rover also includes the Zhurong rover and the entry module.
At 19:52 on February 10, 2021, Beijing time, "Tianwen-1" successfully carried out braking capture, and then entered orbit around Mars, becoming China's first artificial Mars satellite.
Can "Tianwen No. 1" officially "work" on Mars?
No, it also needs to go through an "internship period" of about 3 months.
"After arriving at Mars, 'Tianwen-1' flew around Mars for about 3 months before releasing the rover Zhurong. Why did it go around Mars for 3 months? Because this is our first time, and the landing is still full. risks and unknowns." Chu Yingzhi said.
At 7:18 on May 15, 2021, Beijing time, the Tianwen-1 landing rover successfully landed on the pre-selected landing area in the southern part of the Utopia Plain on Mars. China's first Mars exploration mission successfully landed on Mars.
Chu Yingzhi said that the above-mentioned time for Tianwen-1 to land on Mars is equivalent to about two o'clock in the afternoon on Mars. "After about three months of exploration, we found that the landing at this time was relatively safe."
During these three months of regular detection, "Tianwen-1" not only learned about the flatness of the Martian surface terrain, but also observed its atmospheric motion, sandstorms and other meteorological conditions, accumulating sufficient experience for the official "work" of the landing.
"Official" division of labor records "what Mars saw and heard"
After the three-month "internship observation period", with the Tianwen No. 1 landing rover landing on Mars, the orbiter and the Zhurong Mars rover began to take their places, one "in the sky" and one "on the ground". Great Exploration".
Chu Yingzhi introduced that the orbiter working over Mars is mainly to take pictures of the "whole ball", which is characterized by a large scale and a large area, such as "seeing" how many mountains and several grand canyons are on Mars.
The Zhurong rover, which is driven on the surface of Mars, has a relatively small range of movement and does not “walk” fast, but it can conduct key observations in local areas, and can “photograph” more detailed and clearer scientific discoveries.
As of February 4, 2022, Beijing time, "Tianwen-1" has been in orbit for 561 days, and the Zhurong rover has worked for 259 Martian days, traveling a total of 1,537 meters.
Both the orbiter and the rover are in good condition and operating normally.
"Tianwen-1" is constantly collecting scientific data to detect the periodicity of Mars.
Chu Yingzhi said that its main contents include: the detection of the global topography of Mars, the detection of global material composition and distribution, and the detection of the space environment around Mars, etc. If the instrument goes to Mars, we will know what to expect.”
Shouldering the future "Learning from neighbors" to protect the earth's homeland
In Chu Yingzhi's view, exploring the moon can be compared to humans walking out of the house and entering their own yard, while exploring Mars is just visiting neighbors, and deep space exploration is like the early ocean development of human beings.
Why should we visit the "neighbor" of Mars?
Chu Yingzhi said that many scientists believe that Mars is the "future" of the earth. From a macro perspective, we hope to understand the evolution of the solar system and whether the earth will follow the old path of Mars (evolution).
If the earth will evolve like this, what do we need to do to keep the earth home?
He made an analogy, exploring Mars is like going to a neighbor's house to see, "Is there anyone in the neighbor's house? Why is it deserted? Is it far from the 'water source' or far from the 'rice field'? Then see if we need to correct it, To 'move' or not."
He said that the ultimate purpose of our exploration of Mars is to protect the earth's homeland and to enable human beings to survive and develop better.
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