Zhurong has traveled over 1,000 meters! 1 year and 1 month on Mars, 100 days on land

Today (August 23, 2021) marks one year and one month since the successful launch of the Tianwen-1 probe, my country's first Mars exploration mission, and 100 days since the probe successfully landed on Mars. The mileage of the Zhurong Mars rover has exceeded 1,000 meters.

my country's first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe (including the Zhurong Mars rover, entry capsule, orbiter, etc.) and the Long March 5 carrier rocket used for its launch were developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and other subsystems of the project also involved relevant units of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

▲ Flight control scene

▲ "Zhurong" Mars rover

my country's first Mars exploration mission successfully landed on Mars on May 15, 2021. As of August 15, the Zhurong Mars rover had successfully completed its scheduled patrol and exploration mission.

Subsequently, the Zhurong Mars rover will continue to drive toward the ancient sea-land boundary area in the southern part of Utopia Plain to carry out its expansion mission.

The route map of the Zhurong Mars rover released on August 17↓↓↓

During the patrol and exploration period, the Zhurong Mars rover operated in an efficient exploration mode of "seven-day cycle, one-day plan, and daily exploration."

The navigation terrain camera acquires terrain data along the way, supports the rover's path planning and exploration target selection, and is used to conduct research on morphological features and geological structures;

Subsurface detection radar obtains layered structure data below the surface for shallow surface structure analysis and exploration of possible underground water ice;

Meteorological measuring instruments obtain meteorological data such as temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and wind direction for research on atmospheric physical characteristics;

The surface magnetic field detector obtains local magnetic field data and cooperates with the orbiter magnetometer to explore the evolution of the Martian magnetic field.

Surface composition detectors and multispectral cameras obtain spectral data of typical targets such as specific rocks and soils for analysis and research on elemental and mineral composition.

Navigation terrain camera map↓↓↓

The data acquired by seven scientific payloads, including the Mars rover's navigation terrain camera, surface composition detector, subsurface detection radar, meteorological measuring instrument, the orbiter's high-resolution camera, subsurface detection radar (very low frequency mode), and ion and neutral particle analyzer, have completed relevant processing and quality verification, and formed standard data products. The China Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Network has recently opened data applications to domestic scientific research teams, and will subsequently release scientific data in batches on a monthly basis.

▲ Rear obstacle avoidance camera image

At present, the orbiter is running in the relay communication orbit, mainly for the Mars rover to relay communication. From mid-September to late October 2021, Mars and the Earth will move to the two sides of the sun, and the three will be almost in a straight line, that is, a solar eclipse will occur. Due to the interference of solar electromagnetic radiation, the communication between the orbiter and the earth will be interrupted for about 50 days, and the orbiter and the Mars rover will switch to safe mode and stop exploration work.

▲ Schematic diagram of the orbiter supporting Earth-Mars relay communication (provided by the Eighth Academy)

After the solar eclipse ends, the orbiter will enter the remote sensing mission orbit at an appropriate time to carry out global remote sensing exploration of Mars, obtaining scientific data such as the Martian morphology and geological structure, surface material composition and soil type distribution, atmospheric ionosphere, and Martian space environment, while also taking into account relay communications during the Mars rover expansion mission phase.

Source: National Space Administration, Our Space official Weibo

Editor/Yang Cheng Gao Yiming

Proofreading/Lin Jiaxin

Producer/Huang Xi