Zhurong Lander/Rover, Surface Operations at Utopia Planitia Options

[fredk]

It's not clear if the storm activity has made it that far north yet:
https://www.msss.com/msss_images/2022/01/12/

[Phil Stooke]

Not much news lately. But here is a link to an LPSC abstract with a map:


http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/1381.pdf


The map - if you zoom in - shows the points where the LIBS laser was used for analysis. The map is the same one released last November, but I am puzzled by two areas where the path seems to divert from the older map. They show up as red lines, and one in particular (an excursion to the east at a large drift) seems at odds with the previous map and the Tianwen-1 orbiter image released last fall. I really want to see a new HiRISE image before I decide exactly what my map should look like.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/TheElegant055/status/1501762584386711557

Latest map of Zhurong's progress retweeted by Andrew Jones. It's been slow. I hope that means quite a lot of analysis and observation done along the way.

Phil

[volcanopele]

Slow is good. Slow ensures that the image I took of it in mid-January with CaSSIS will actually include the rover.

[John Moore]

Some 22 names added to the nomenclature by the IAU.

John

[Bill Harris]

Good progress. I am still impressed with their hazard avoidance on the skillful daily drives or with the efficient Autonav routines.

John, are those new place names shown on a map at IAU?

--Bill

[Phil Stooke]

See our map thread, post #35, for the locations of named features.

Phil

[John Moore]

Good progress. I am still impressed with their hazard avoidance on the skillful daily drives or with the efficient Autonav routines.

John, are those new place names shown on a map at IAU?

--Bill

The map Phil references is indeed at #35, and clicking on their names (in the IAU page link above) brings them up individually on a map.

John

[Phil Stooke]

If you look at the IAU map of names in that area (http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/images/mc14_2014.pdf), it is not updated yet. But you will notice that it has an unusually dense set of crater names (mostly southwest of the TW1 landing site). That is because the area with many names was a candidate Viking site called Amenthes.

Phil

[scalbers]

Story about relatively recent hydrated minerals in Utopia Planitia written on the CNN website:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/world/mars-w...-scn/index.html

Related journal article is here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn8555

[Hungry4info]

Apparently the weather has not been kind to Zhurong. The May 6 update reported that the rover's solar arrays have been tilted up to increase sun exposure and the rover's activities scaled back to preserve power. Today, People's Daily reports that Zhurong has entered a hibernation mode and is expected to come out of it in December.

[Hungry4info]

Here's some images from a CCTV documentary about Zhurong that we haven't yet seen which appear to document various deployments of solar arrays, the mast(?), and the deployable camera. There also appears to be a video of the use of the LIBS instrument here.

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[Huguet]

Bringing the Thread about 'roving pebbles' started at Tianwen orbiter to Zhurong forum:

CSNA released new images from Tianwen and 1 new image from Zhurong:
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2022/06-29/9791303.shtml

On the image is possible so see recent material random moviment, due to it's tiny size and little exposition to dust. By now, probably, wind action over light material, eject dust from impact or erosion of the dune.

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[Huguet]

probably, wind action over light material, eject dust from impact or erosion of the dune.

Eject: It has peebles without traces and some exactly on the same traces... so i believe it is not eject dust from impact... only if very light material that would fall and break generating these patterns...
Erosion: i can't get why peebles apears on the same tracks and without track, it don't looks right.
Wind action: Can't figure peebles at same tracks. and with so different directions...

Only i can say is, the mostly i look, i less understand it....

Mabe some kind of rising or condensation of material?? They go up or group together due of some composition on this exact dune. Still didn't explain some paths,.. but would explain peebles on same path and without path.... Im thinking about the environment, this is a almost vacuum low gravity atmosphere,...

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[Huguet]

New CCTV's "Painting Learning" from space exploration... here follows the one about Tianwen/Zhurong...

http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2022/07-24/9810981.shtml

Google translation:

The Tianwen-1 probe landed on Mars, taking an important step in my country's interstellar exploration journey, realizing the leap from the Earth-Moon system to the interplanetary system, and leaving the Chinese imprint on Mars for the first time. Another milestone in development.

"Heavenly Questions" comes from Qu Yuan's long poem "Heavenly Questions". In the poem, Qu Yuan raised more than 170 questions, including the rising and setting of the sun and the moon, and the shape and position of the moon and stars. The Mars probe is named "Tianwen", so that the pursuit of the ancients echoes the exploration of today's people.

God, the first Mars rover is named "Zhu Rong", which means to ignite me.

The fire of interstellar exploration in the country guides mankind's continuous exploration and self-transcendence of the vast starry sky and the unknown of the universe.

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