Zhurong Lander/Rover, Surface Operations at Utopia Planitia Options

[Huguet]

Some equalization. First part of the screen seens to have a mars on it. Lest part the strange object and the graphic.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[serpens]

I wish the Chinese rover the same solar panel cleaning events and longevity as Spirit and Opportunity. Hopefully there will be the same openness with respect to image release.

[marsophile]

I wish the Chinese rover the same solar panel cleaning events and longevity as Spirit and Opportunity. Hopefully there will be the same openness with respect to image release.

I wish the same, but the rover is substantially further north (~25 degrees). I fear it may have more trouble surviving the winter.
cos(2 * 10 degrees) = 0.940
cos(2 * 25 degrees) = 0.643

[vikingmars]

Hopefully there will be the same openness with respect to image release.

Yes : the Chinese said that all images will be availalble for public release. And CNES and ESA will have also an access to them

[Huguet]

"Accroding to xinhua, tiawen is scheduled to do a orbit change at the upcoming periapsis pass. From a 2 day orbit to a 1/3 day orbit."

Tianwen-1 has already changed its orbit, now it appears to be a 1 day orbit, but probably will be changed again for closers and fast ones.

https://mobile.twitter.com/df2mz/status/1393857334955450370
https://mobile.twitter.com/pyr0bee/status/1...854471529123840

[Huguet]

I wish the Chinese rover the same solar panel cleaning events and longevity as Spirit and Opportunity. Hopefully there will be the same openness with respect to image release.

They have been very open to Chang'e raw data. The Chinese understand that the biggest enemy of Space Exploration is politics, so they are leting their space program run very freely. I think thats why they are geting so much success.

I expect then to be open with the Tianwen-1 data, like they did with the chang missions.

[bobik]

I wish the Chinese rover the same solar panel cleaning events and longevity as Spirit and Opportunity.

Apparently they made some precautions, they applied a special microstructure coating on the solar panels to reduce friction between dust particles and surface, and the two side panels can be tilted by electric motors to remove accumulated dust by gravity and improve sun illumination.

[Toma B]

Apparently they made some precautions, they applied a special microstructure coating on the solar panels to reduce friction between dust particles and surface, and the two side panels can be tilted by electric motors to remove accumulated dust by gravity and improve sun illumination.

Thank you for that link Bobik. That was very informative.

I recently came across this poster. I don't know if it is genuine or not but what surprised me is that microphone under the mast cameras. I don't recall seeing a microphone in any Zhurong instruments list... anyway, here is that poster slightly modified in Topaz Gigapixel.

[Hungry4info]

From here:

NASA have three orbiters in place to relay images. China’s only orbiter had to deliver the lander to the surface, escape the gravity back to its orbit (2-day period), change obit/Lower its period to relay lander signal to earth.
An orbit adjustment will be performed today to lower period to 8 hours. Also Zhurong is solar powered, not RTG, the window of opportunities to transmit images is much narrower. So far only sensor and state data were transmitted. Don’t expect pictures till mid week.

[Greenish]

Agreed, bobik, thank you for this article which has a bunch of details I hadn't seen (though I'm realizing I have a lot to catch up on, so it's probably not new to everyone). In particular it points to a bunch of innovations motivated by lessons from prior US rovers and the Chang'e missions, among them:

(1) answers the question from upthread about the two circular features in the center of the rover top surface:

In addition to the solar panels, there are two circular films on the body of the rover, which look like a greenhouse. It is indeed a "greenhouse" for the rover, but there are no plant seeds in it, but phase change insulation materials....
...
If the control scheme on the moon is copied, even if the wake-sleep process will not affect the rover, the cumbersome start-up, self-check, and adjustment procedures will also Take up a lot of time. Therefore, the rover is also working at night.
...
During the day, "Zhu Rong" thermal insulation material liquefies to absorb heat, and at night it solidifies and releases heat. This special feature allows Zhu Rong to maintain a constant body temperature even under drastic changes in the external environment temperature, so that the various components it carries can work more stably and for a longer period of time.

(2) also mentions the ability to turn the wheels sideways 90 degrees and (!) unlock the suspension joints, using the wheel motors to raise or lower itself and "creep" out of any situation where it gets stuck. - Edit: here is a paper by the cited author on the subject: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic...094114X1830171X - paywall but with graphical abstract

[Huguet]

Don't know if other orbiters would help. I believe the orbit must pass near Zhurong to help. Thats why they are changing and lowering the tianwen-1 orbit.

I have a big doubt.. If the navigation is based on Photogrammetry, using a heavy pack of images at each processing. How will they help that from earth with this kind of dificult to receive the data....

[Huguet]

Following Space Exploration is a guide to a heart atack...

"China's Zhurong rover Mars EDL:
1) 9 minutes of something approximating terror
2) 18 minutes of light delay/ontological deliberation
3) 90 minutes of info blackout & confusion
4) Official success
5) 2 Days & counting of so where are the photos?"
Andrew Jones

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1394052879510605825

[Explorer1]

No chance other non-NASA spacecraft can act as relays? MOM, Hope, etc? If not, this is going to be a slow ground mission (Galileo but one planet inward!)

[Huguet]

A Image that tells a lot, we only see a good chang'e-3, chang'e-4 nominal, chang'e-5 nominal, Tianwen-1 nominal till now... But a image of Tianwen-1 chief designer Zhang Rongqiao in tears after the succesfull landing tell a lot about what we can't see....

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/16/c_139949426.htm

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

No chance other non-NASA spacecraft can act as relays? MOM, Hope, etc? If not, this is going to be a slow ground mission (Galileo but one planet inward!)

Neither MOM nor Hope have relay hardware.

Exomars TGO does - but it's not clear to me that it's compatible with Zhurong given that it's an Electra radio supplied by NASA-JPL.

In early operations - Spirit and Opportunity survived with just MGS and Mars Odyssey. One could quite easily design a concept of operations that works with a single relay asset in a longer period elliptical orbit. Infact- depending on link budget and pass duration, you could get a huge amount of data back with a spacecraft in a more elliptical orbit. MAVEN and TGO return the lions share of data from MSL, for example.

Even if the orbiter were to fail for some reason - the size of the high gain antenna on this rover would suggest something around 1 - 20 kbps of direct to earth downlink if required - you could return a few tens of megabits per sol that way if necessary.

Galileo operated with around 0.1kbps of downlink. This is not going to be 'Galileo but one planet inward'.