"Zhu Rong" is going to enter "dormant mode" for the winter.

"Zhu Rong" is going to enter "dormant mode" for the winter.

The "Zhu Rong" rover will enter the "dormant mode" for the winter. In order to survive the extreme weather such as Martian winter and sandstorm safely, the Zhu Rong lunar rover has designed an autonomous sleep mode, and will soon enter the "sleep mode" for the winter.

The "Zhu Rong" rover is ready to enter the "sleep mode" of winter 1. At this moment, the northern hemisphere of the earth is entering a hot summer, and some countries in the northern hemisphere have already ushered in hot weather, especially the capital of India, a big Southeast Asian country, which has experienced a high temperature of nearly 50℃. However, the northern hemisphere of Mars, which is 240 million kilometers away from the earth, is on the contrary, and is entering the cold winter.

Red-brown Mars looks extremely barren, but it is the planet most similar to the Earth since human beings explored Xinghai. Its mass is close, it is in the livable zone of the solar system, and its climate and environment are similar. The atmosphere of Mars changes in four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, and there are many sandstorms.

On the Utopia Plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, a rover is slowly heading south. Sometimes it stops to explore the rocks under its feet and the surrounding terrain. This rover is China's Zhu Rong rover. As of May 6th, Zhu Rong has safely passed 348 Mars days.

The design life of the Zhu Rong rover is only 90 Mars days, that is, 92 Earth days, but now it is nearly four times as long as the design life. If there are no other problems, the Zhu Rong rover can continue to work. You should know that the American Spirit and Opportunity rovers have been driving on the surface of Mars for several years.

In the past 348 Mars days, the Zhu Rong rover * * * traveled south 192 1 meter. Together with the orbiter 1 in the orbit of Mars, * * * obtained 940G of scientific data, including optical photos, magnetic field data on the surface of Mars, temperature, wind force and pressure data on the surface of Mars.

Zhu Rong is 1.85 meters tall and weighs 240 kilograms. It's not as heavy as an electric tricycle, but don't underestimate it. Equipped with radar system, power system, power supply system, Mars surface composition detector, multispectral camera, navigation terrain camera, surface detection radar, Mars surface magnetic field detector and Mars meteorological measuring instrument.

But now, something new has happened on the Zhu Rong Mars. Because of insufficient power supply, it will be forced to enter "sleep mode" or "hibernation mode" for several months. In the past 348 Mars days, hasn't Zhu Rong been in good health? Why is there a power shortage now?

There are two main reasons. One is that the Utopia Plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars entered the cold winter, and the other is that dusty weather appeared in the Utopia Plain.

The off-axis inclination of Mars is 25. 19, that is, the angle between the rotation plane of Mars and the ecliptic plane is close to the inclination angle of the earth's rotation axis of 23.44, so Mars also has four seasons, with hot summer and cold winter. Now, the utopian plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars is entering winter.

According to the meteorological data obtained by the Mars meteorological instrument of the Zhu Rong rover, the highest temperature in the Utopia Plain is only -20℃, and the lowest temperature is as low as-100℃, which is much colder than the Antarctic in the worst environment on earth, because the angle of sunlight is more and more inclined, and the illumination time is shortened accordingly.

China's Zhu Rong rover, like American Spirit and Opportunity rovers, gets power through huge solar panels, thus supplying power for instruments and systems. Mars is no better than the earth. There is no rain and the sky is not covered with clouds. Therefore, it is a very good idea to have solar panels to obtain electricity.

Mars is larger than the earth in axial inclination, which means that in winter, the inclination angle of sunlight is larger than that of the earth, and the light is weakened to a greater extent. Therefore, in the winter of Mars, the power obtained by solar panels in Zhu Rong will naturally be greatly reduced.

There are endless sand seas everywhere on the surface of Mars, and there is a thin atmosphere on Mars. The Martian wind blows up dry dust, causing terrible sandstorms, just like sandstorms in the desert. Due to a sandstorm that swept half of Mars, the American rover Opportunity was completely silent.

2065438+In June 2008, Opportunity sent back the last photo before Silence. Nothing was seen in the photo, and it was dark, which showed that the sandstorm was unstoppable, completely blocking the sun and the solar panels of Opportunity, so Opportunity quickly lost power.

Now, although there has never been a big sandstorm in the Utopia Plain in the northern hemisphere of Mars, small-scale sandstorms often occur, further weakening the light.

In March 2022, China released a recent photo of Zhu Rong. Compared with the self-portrait of 202 1 landing, the solar panel was obviously covered with a layer of yellow-brown dust, which not only affected the power supply, but also proved that there were indeed many sandstorms on Mars.

When the northern hemisphere entered winter, the solar panels were covered with a layer of yellow-brown dust, and the recent dusty weather led to the power shortage in Zhu Rong. When the power in Zhu Rong is low, the system will naturally be forced into sleep mode, and will not wake up automatically until the power is sufficient.

Mars orbits outside the Earth, with a revolution speed of 24. 13 km per second, which is obviously slower than the Earth. The revolution time of Mars is obviously longer than that of the Earth, which is about 687 Earth days, that is, 668 Mars days, so a winter on Mars is more than five months. It seems that Zhu Rong will be dormant for a long time this time.

The Zhu Rong rover is going to enter "dormant mode" for the winter. The reporter learned from the National Space Administration on the 6th that as of May 5th, Tianwen-1 orbiter had been in orbit for 65 1 day, with a distance of 940GB million kilometers from the Earth. The Zhu Rong rover worked on the surface of Mars for 347 Mars days and traveled 1, 92 1 meter.

During the ring fire, all seven payloads carried by the "Tianwen-1" orbiter were turned on, and the global remote sensing exploration of Mars continued.

On April 17, 2022, a high-resolution camera photographed the "seasonal slope pattern" on the wall of Triolet crater on Mars. (Source: National Space Administration)

On April 1 day, 2022, a medium-resolution camera photographed the local landform of Mariner Valley on Mars. (Source: National Space Administration)

According to reports, the "Zhu Rong" rover completed the scheduled 90 Mars Day patrol missions on 2 1 and 15 on August 20th, and continued to carry out the extended patrol missions. At present, the area where the "Zhu Rong" rover is located has entered winter, which is similar to our earth. After entering winter, the height angle of sunlight in the northern hemisphere decreases and the duration of sunlight shortens. three

According to the measurement, the local maximum temperature of the rover has dropped to -20℃ at noon and the ambient temperature at night is as low as-100℃. In addition, due to the dusty weather, the light intensity is further weakened, which affects the power generation capacity of the solar wing array of the rover. Recently, the engineering team adjusted the lighting angle by rotating the solar wing, which reduced the daily work items and duration and achieved energy balance.

On April 10, 2022, the navigation terrain camera took an image of stones distributed near the impact crater on the surface of Mars. (Source: National Space Administration)

The rotation period of Mars is close to that of the Earth. A Mars day is only about 40 minutes longer than the Earth, and the axis inclination of Mars is 25. 19, which is also very close to the Earth. So Mars, like the Earth, has the alternation of day and night and the change of seasons. The period of revolution of Mars is about 687 days, that is, 1 Mars year is equivalent to 1.9 Earth year, which means that the average duration of each season on Mars is about twice that of the Earth.

When Zhu Rong just landed last year, Mars moved to the perihelion, and the direct point of the sun was in the northern hemisphere. At that time, the northern hemisphere just entered summer and the southern hemisphere entered winter. Now, nearly 1 year after landing on Mars, Mars runs near perihelion, and the direct point of the sun is in the southern hemisphere. Zhu Rong's northern hemisphere enters winter and the southern hemisphere enters summer.

In the next two months, the direct point of the sun will continue to move to the south of Mars and reach the Tropic of Capricorn around the middle and late July, when the northern hemisphere of Mars will enter the coldest season of the year. In order to survive the extreme weather such as Martian winter and sandstorm safely, the Zhu Rong rover designed an autonomous sleep mode, which will automatically enter the sleep mode when the energy is reduced to a certain extent, and then return to the normal working mode after the environmental conditions gradually improve.

"Zhu Rong" is going to enter "dormant mode" for the winter. According to the news of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of China National Space Administration on the 5th, it is predicted that the northern hemisphere of Mars will enter the coldest season of the year in the middle and late July. At present, the maximum temperature of the Zhu Rong rover at noon has dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the ambient temperature at night is as low as minus 100 degrees Celsius. In order to safely survive extreme weather such as Martian winter and sandstorm,

At present, the area where the "Zhu Rong" rover is located has entered the winter, which is similar to the earth. After entering winter, the height angle of sunlight in the northern hemisphere decreases and the duration of sunlight shortens.

According to the measurement, the local maximum temperature of the rover at noon has dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the ambient temperature at night is below minus 100 degrees Celsius. In addition, due to the dusty weather, the light intensity is further weakened, which affects the power generation capacity of the solar wing array of the rover. In the near future, the engineering team will adjust the lighting angle by rotating the solar wing, reduce the daily work items and duration, and achieve energy balance.

It is understood that the rotation period of Mars is close to that of the Earth from the angle of axis inclination, and a Mars day is only about 40 minutes longer than that of the Earth, which is 25. 19 degrees from the angle of axis inclination. Therefore, Mars, like the Earth, has alternation of day and night and seasonal changes. The period of revolution of Mars is about 687 days, that is, 1 Mars year is equivalent to 1.9 Earth year, which means that the average duration of each season on Mars is about twice that of the Earth.

When Zhu Rong just landed last year, Mars moved to the perihelion, and the direct point of the sun was in the northern hemisphere. Mars has just entered summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere. Now, Zhu Rong has landed on Mars for nearly 1 year, and Mars has moved to the perihelion, and the direct point of the sun is in the southern hemisphere. Zhu Rong's northern hemisphere enters winter and the southern hemisphere enters summer.

In the next two months, the direct point of the sun will continue to move to the south of Mars and reach the tropic of Capricorn in the middle and late July, when the northern hemisphere of Mars will enter the coldest season of the year. In order to survive the extreme weather such as Martian winter and sandstorm safely, the Zhu Rong rover designed an autonomous sleep mode, which will automatically enter the sleep mode when the energy is reduced to a certain extent, and then return to the normal working mode after the environmental conditions gradually improve.

As of May 5th, Tianwen-1 orbiter has been in orbit for 65 1 day, with a distance of 240 million kilometers from the Earth. Zhu Rong, the rover, has been working on the surface of Mars for 347 Mars days, driving 1, 92 1 m, and the original scientific data of the two vehicles is about 940GB, which is in normal operation.

During the ring fire, all seven payloads carried by the "Tianwen-1" orbiter were turned on, and the global remote sensing exploration of Mars continued. "Zhu Rong" Rover continued to perform the extended patrol mission after completing the scheduled patrol mission of 90 Mars days in August 1 year.

On the 5th, the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering of the National Space Administration released three images of Mars landforms, namely1April, which were taken by a high-resolution camera with a resolution of about 0.8m/ pixel, showing the "seasonal slope pattern" on the pit wall. 1 April, the local landform image of Mariner Valley of Mars taken by a medium resolution camera, with a resolution of about 65m/ pixel; The images of rocks distributed near the impact crater on the surface of Mars taken by the navigation terrain camera in April 10.