China News Service, Shanghai, May 15th: "Tianwen No. 1" on the first anniversary of the fire to reveal the "best partner" behind the Mars rover
Author Zheng Yingying Ma Shuaisha
The first anniversary of China's Tianwen-1 Mars probe landing on Mars.
This is the first time a Chinese spacecraft has reached Mars.
One year ago, on May 15, 2021, the Zhurong rover successfully landed on Mars, and there was actually a silently guarding "best partner" behind it.
Going to Mars for the first time is "unfamiliar with life" and it explores the way for the Mars rover
China's 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.
This mysterious "best partner" is the surround.
In an interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com, Niu Junpo, the chief designer of the Mars Orbiter of the Eighth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, introduced that the UAE's "Hope" Mars probe and the United States' "Perseverance" Mars probe were launched at the same time.
The American "Perseverance" uses the method of directly entering Mars, that is, after launching from the earth, without orbiting Mars, after reaching Mars, it will directly enter the Martian atmosphere and land on the surface of Mars.
Niu Junpo said that because this is the first time for a Chinese spacecraft to go to Mars, we are not familiar with the environment of Mars, so after the Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter successfully entered the orbit of the fire with a landing rover, it orbited first, and the high altitude on the Mars orbiter was used. The resolution camera conducts a 3-month fine detection of the pre-selected landing area to know whether there is a sandstorm in the landing area, whether the terrain is flat, whether it is suitable for landing tasks, etc.; "Tianwen No. 1" decides when and where to land.
The road to falling fire is "dangerous", it accompanies the Mars rover bravely
After the landing area is selected, it is also "dangerous" for "Tianwen-1" to land.
At that time, in the sky above Mars 330 million kilometers away, the orbiter adopted the first "dive-pull" method to carry out the separation mission of the two devices, separated from the rover, and sent the rover into the Martian atmosphere.
Niu Junpo introduced that during the landing process, the orbiter took great risks to "escort" the Zhurong rover.
The orbiter must first descend on the orbit, and then enter the orbit to hit Mars with the landing rover. "This orbit is very dangerous. After (the orbiter and the landing rover) are separated, if there is a problem with the orbiter's orbit, it will also be It will enter the Martian atmosphere, and the mission of the orbiter will fail. Because the landing rover is designed with a protective shield, it is not afraid of the ablation of the Martian atmosphere, and if the orbiter enters the Martian atmosphere, it will be burned.”
At that time, within more than 3 hours, the orbiter independently completed 4 attitude maneuvers, 2 orbit control and 1 separation. "Space Glide Action" to escort the rover into the Martian atmosphere.
The surface of Mars is rough and it "watches" the road conditions to protect the rover
The surface of Mars is rugged, and during winter in the northern hemisphere of Mars, there will be dust storms sweeping the world, all of which bring great hidden dangers to the safe operation of "Zhurong".
As the "best partner" of the Zhurong rover, the orbiter always maintains a high degree of vigilance, constantly monitors the surface environment of Mars, and transmits important telemetry information of the "Zhurong" to the earth in a timely manner, so as to "drive safely" on the surface of Mars for the "Zhurong" "Protect.
During the Zhurong rover's work on the surface of Mars, the Mars orbiter not only acts as a relay satellite between Earth and Mars, but also undertakes the important mission of global remote sensing exploration.
At present, the seven payloads carried by the orbiter have all been turned on, and they orbit the fire more than three times each Martian day, continuously conducting three-dimensional scientific exploration of the surface of Mars and its subsurface.
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