PEKING / PRAHA The Chinese vehicle Chu-zung of the Chinese probe Tien-wen-1 is to try to land on the red planet on the night from Friday to Saturday. Its main task is to study the internal structure of Mars.
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According to the Chinese space agency CNSA, Rover Zhuong (in the Zhurong English transcript) is to land on Mars at one o’clock in the night of Central European Summer Time. The Tian-wen-1 spacecraft has been in orbit around the red planet since February 10. Her name means “heavenly questions.” It comes from a poem written in the third or fourth century BC The cart was named after the old Chinese fire god. The apparatus consists of the probe body itself and a conical landing capsule.
After four minutes and 44 seconds, a parachute is to open at a height of four kilometers above the surface of Mars. In another 41 seconds, a heat shield separates at a height of three kilometers from the bottom of the capsule. After another 45 seconds, one and a half kilometers above the planet’s surface, the capsule cover and parachute separate. The landing module will continue to descend at a speed of 95 meters per second. One hundred meters above the surface of Mars, a braking rocket engine ignites.
The module lands, and a ramp swings out of it, followed by a Zhuong vehicle. Before that, however, he must unfold the solar panels and tilt the camera and antenna attachment. Mars is currently less than 317 million kilometers from Earth. The terrestrial radio signal will reach him in just over 17 and a half minutes. Therefore, the landing maneuver cannot be interfered with from Earth.
The Zhuong vehicle weighs 240 kilograms. It is three in length, 2.6 in width and 1.85 meters in height. It moves on six wheels. It should last at least 90 Mars days or sols. If something bad does not happen to him in the hostile environment of the planet, he can exceed this time several times.
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Most of the tasks of the Zhuong rover concern the geology of Mars, carrying six scientific instruments. The most important is the microwave radar directed to the ground. Allows the truck to see up to 100 meters below the surface. In addition, Zhuung has a magnetic field detector, a meteorological probe and a laser spectrometer to determine the composition of rocks and minerals. The whole thing is complemented by two cameras.
The CNSA has selected Utopia Planitia for landing. It is a crater after the impact of a foreign body. Its diameter is 3300 kilometers. It is the largest known such structure in the solar system. The American spacecraft Viking 2 landed in the crater in 1976.
According to radar measurements by the US Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from 2016, a considerable amount of ice could be hidden under the surface of the crater. Its volume could correspond to about 1.2 times the volume of Lake Superior in North America. The landscape inside the crater is indeed similar to some areas on our own planet from which underground ice is documented.
The crater also has a curious cultural significance. The creators of the American series Star Trek have placed shipyards in it, in which the fictitious United Federation of Planets will one day build its giant spaceships.
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If the Zhuong vehicle makes a landing, China will only become the second country after the United States to handle the rover’s operation on Mars. After the USA and the USSR, it will be the third state able to make a soft landing on the red planet. The CNSA will serve years to gain experience for a planned mission to return samples to Earth. He counts on it in the 1930s. Zhuong is set to become the sixth vehicle to land on Mars. The very first belonged to the Soviet Mars 3 spacecraft. It landed on the surface of the red planet in 1971. However, the Soviets lost contact with their spacecraft twenty seconds after landing. The American rover Sojourner thus became the first successful vehicle. He landed on Mars in 1997. He was followed by a pair of identical American rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, in 2004. They were followed by Curiosity in 2012 and Perseverance in 2021. The last two rovers are still active and fulfilling their scientific program.
The 2020/2021 season is particularly busy on Mars. In addition to the Chinese and American apparatus, the Hope (al-Amal) probe of the United Arab Emirates arrived on the planet. However, it does not have its own rover and is satisfied with the measurement from orbit.
The average temperature on Mars is -63 degrees Celsius. Atmospheric pressure corresponds to only about six percent of the Earth’s, gravity about 38 percent. There can be no liquid water on the planet at present, but according to a lot of evidence, it used to be different. Whether life was on Mars remains to be determined.
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