Author: Guo Chaokai
July-August 2020 is an important "window period" for Mars exploration, and the world ushers in the "fire exploration season". Following the successful launch of the UAE Hope probe on July 20, China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, will be implemented at an appropriate time from late July to early August, taking the first step in China's planetary exploration.
Why have China, the United States and the UAE "crowd" to carry out Mars exploration recently? What are the differences between detectors in different countries? The reporter interviewed relevant experts to find out.
Long March 5 rocket was transported vertically to the launch area, and will soon implement China's first Mars exploration (the "Tianwen-1" mission in the planetary exploration project). Zhang Gaoxiang Photographed by
Why do you need to detect the fire? Why is
Mars detection so charming, attracting countries around the world to carry out exploration missions one after another?
This starts with the origin of Mars and Earth. Mars is the planet most similar to Earth in the solar system. Exploring Mars and understanding Mars will help mankind further understand the formation and evolution of the Earth and the solar system, and predict the future trend of the Earth. In addition, exploring the origin and evolution of life on Martian can promote the study of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and even the solar system, and help humans understand their status and ultimate destiny in the universe.
"A lot of signs indicate that Mars was probably the same as the Earth now, but after billions of years of evolution, it has become the current thin atmosphere and low temperature." Researcher of China Space Technology Research Institute Pang Zhihao 时彩海新 时彩海新 时彩海样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样样� China News Agency reporters said that exploring Mars has a promoting effect on studying the evolution of the earth and preventing the evolution of the earth from becoming the second Mars that humans are difficult to survive.
Pang Zhihao said that in the long run, the earth may one day become unsuitable for survival due to impacts from extraterrestrial planets. Some scientists believe that since Mars is most similar to Earth, Mars can be transformed into the second home suitable for human habitation, and then immigrate to Mars. "To this end, we must now have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Mars, laying the foundation for manned landing on fire, transforming Mars, and building a Mars base." This is also an important reason why countries around the world are "happy" in Mars exploration.
success rate is about 50%
Looking at the history of world aerospace, humans seem to have a special liking for Mars. Mars exploration activities in countries around the world date back to the 1960s.
According to Geng Yan, director of the Deep Space Exploration General Department of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the State Space Administration, the history of human fire exploration can be roughly divided into three development stages. 1960-1970 was the first phase. At that time, international deep space exploration was still in its early stages of research. Relevant countries mainly focused on Mars flight detection, transmission of Mars pictures and detection of atmospheric parameters, but the success rate of the exploration mission was not high. From 1970 to 1990, the second phase was the United States and the Soviet Union re-launched Mars exploration activities, focusing on orbital and landing exploration. The third phase has been in the 1990s to the present, and Mars exploration has once again become a hot spot for deep space exploration. Many countries and regions led by the United States have carried out Mars exploration activities. The main method is landing exploration, and the main goal is to find evidence of the existence of Martian water and signs of life.
In October 1960, the Soviet Union launched two probes "Mars 1A" and "Mars 1B" to Mars, but both ended in failure. It was not until October 1964 that the US "Sailor 4" probe sent back the first close-range image of the Mars surface to Earth in human history, opening a new chapter in Mars exploration.
As of June this year, countries around the world have implemented more than 40 fire exploration activities. Among them, there were only 24 successful and some successful missions, with a success rate of about 50%. Only single digits were able to land on Mars and successfully carry out exploration missions.
Although humans have longed for Mars, Mars exploration is not an easy task. Mars is known as the "cemetery" of human probes. So far, there are 8 probes that have successfully landed on Mars: Pirate One, Pirate Two, Pathfinder, Opportunity , Courage , Phoenix, Curiosity , and Insight , all of which are Developed in the United States.
As of now, there are 6 Mars exploration orbiters and 2 landing cruisers that are still working.Among them, orbiters include the "Mars Odyssey", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution", Europe's " Mars Express ", "Tractical Gas Orbiter" and India's "Mangarian". The only landing rovers that are still working are the United States' Curiosity rover and the Insight Mars lander.
Zhang Gaoxiang Photo provided by the News and Propaganda Center of the State Space Administration
The three countries' fire exploration period
Combined with the orbital cycle of Earth and Mars, a window period of "Martian opposition" will appear about every 26 months. The window period from July to August this year is a favorable opportunity to launch the Mars rover . Implementing Mars exploration during this period can save the probe fuel and save time and effort.
Once the window period is missed, the next good opportunity for Mars exploration can only be until 2022. Europe originally planned to join the Mars exploration cohort this year, but due to the epidemic and other technical factors, the Mars rover developed by the ESA and the Russian Space Agency had to be postponed to launch until two years later. Therefore, this year, only three countries are left in China, the United States and the UAE.
According to the technological development process and mission goals, humans currently have four main types of missions to explore Mars: flying missions that are only a glance, orbiting missions that can be comprehensively surveyed, landing missions that can be detailed in area, and freely moving Inspection mission. In the future, humans will also implement the fifth task: sampling and return.
The three countries that implemented fire exploration this year have different Mars exploration missions. Among them, the UAE's "Hope" Mars rover only implements an orbital mission, the United States' "Perseverance" Mars rover plans to complete two major tasks: landing and patrol, while China's Tianwen-1 mission will complete the orbiting, landing and patrol at one time. Three major goals.
On July 20, the UAE's "Hope" Mars rover was launched at the Japan Seed Island Space Center. If the mission is successfully implemented, Hope will become the world's first Mars meteorological satellite, which can be used to comprehensively explore the Martian atmosphere, study Martian climate change, low-altitude weather changes, sandstorm forecasts, etc.
The US Perseverance rover will replace the aging Curiosity rover and continue to explore the environment and signs of life on Mars. Pang Zhihao said that the biggest highlight of the Perseverance rover is that the rover will collect 30 samples of rocks and soil inside Mars and then place them on the surface of Mars. In the future, it will launch a probe to bring the samples back to Earth.
Currently, the United States plans to cooperate with the EU to carry out a launch mission in 2026 and bring rock samples back to Earth in 2031, but this idea has not been officially advanced. If progress goes well, these rocks are expected to be the first samples humans have obtained from Mars, and scientists can use them to analyze whether life exists on Mars. Previously, the Curiosity rover has found traces of moisture that are crucial to life.
China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, which has attracted much attention from the Chinese people, is scheduled to be implemented at an appropriate time from late July to early August. The Tianwen-1 mission will realize three missions: Mars orbit, landing and patrol through a launch. It can not only use the orbiter to carry out global and comprehensive orbital exploration of Mars, but also use the inspector to conduct scientific research value. Carry out detailed investigations with high precision and high resolution.
Zhang Gaoxiang Photo provided by the News and Propaganda Center of the State Space Administration of China
Tianwen-1 will start
Compared with the United States, Russia and other countries, China is still a "novice" in Mars exploration. In the process of human fire exploration, only the United States "Pirate One" and "Pirate Two" have achieved two missions of Mars orbiting and landing through a single launch. Previously, Europe had tried twice to achieve two missions of orbiting and landing Mars through a single launch, but both landings ended in failure and only orbiting exploration was completed.
Pang Zhihao believes that China's "Tianwen-1" mission adopts the "one-shot three-kill" fire detection method, with a high starting point and high efficiency, but great challenges. If successful, it will enable China's deep space exploration capabilities and levels to achieve leapfrog development.
Geng Yan said that China's Mars rover is equipped with 13 payloads, including 7 on orbiters and 6 on landing cruisers.The first Mars exploration mission sets five major scientific goals, mainly involving research on space environment, morphological characteristics, surface structure, etc.
"Scientifically speaking, this is a comprehensive task to study Mars morphology, geology, mineralogy, space environment, soil and water ice distribution, deepen the scientific understanding of the Chinese people on Mars and even the solar system, and promote comparative planetary science Research on major issues such as "Pang Zhihao said.
Not long afterwards, China will use the Long March 5 Yao-4 rocket to send the Tianwen-1 probe into space at the Wenchang Space Launch Site. The "planetary exploration era" belonging to the Chinese people is about to come.
