Space News thread

[OhOh]

The landing zone is in the general area SpaceX is interested to put their first landing and later a Mars base and a Mars City

How long after a successful landing will it be before we know on earth?

Is the Tianwen-1 planned landing zone at a similar latitude to Perseverance?

Have all previous landings been in the same latitude belt?

The surface temperature does seem latitude dependent and to vary greatly compared to Earth:

"Surface temperatures may reach a high of about 20 °C (293 K; 68 °F) at noon, at the equator, and a low of about −153 °C (120 K; −243 °F) at the poles."

Thanks for the NASA site link.

[Takeovers]

A map with the locations of landing sites. They are mostly on the northern half and they are mostly in low lying areas, with more atmosphere to brake. The chinese Tianwen-1 is already included.

[OhOh]

Thanks.

[OhOh]

Xi sends congratulatory letter on Mars probe's historic landing

By Zhao Lei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-05-15 08:41


"President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a letter soon after the successful landing of Tianwen 1 probe on Mars was announced at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Saturday morning, extending congratulations and greetings to all those involved in the landmark mission.

The letter reads that the mission has left the nation's first mark on Mars, encouraging space workers to continue working hard for the mission's next steps.

A Chinese spacecraft successfully landed on the Martian surface on Saturday morning, marking a historic accomplishment in China's space endeavor.

According to the China National Space Administration, the Tianwen 1 robotic probe activated some of its engines around 1 am to move closer to Mars. At about 4 am, the craft separated into two parts – the landing capsule and the orbiter – with the landing capsule continuing to fly toward the Martian atmosphere.

Three hours later, the capsule, which holds China's first Martian rover, entered the red planet's thin atmosphere at an altitude of about 125 kilometers, embarking on the riskiest and most challenging nine minutes during the entire Tianwen 1 mission.

Due to the long distance between Mars and Earth, which now stands at about 320 million km, and the resulting delay in signal transmission, the whole entry-descent-landing process must be carried out autonomously by the landing capsule based on a preset program and data obtained by its sensors.

According to its predetermined program, as soon as the atmospheric entry began, the capsule would first use a heat shield to decelerate, which means the craft would rely on aerodynamic drag to slow down. And then it would deploy a parachute to further reduce the speed and drop the heat shield. In the next step, the craft would unfold its four landing legs, drop the parachute together with the back shell, and then would ignite its retrorockets at an altitude of 1.5 km above the Martian surface.

When the spacecraft reaches about 100 meters above the surface, it would suspend the descent and spend some time observing and analyzing the selected landing point to check for obstacles such as rocks. With a positive result, the craft would continue descending until the last moment above the surface, when the retrorockets would be shut down and the capsule would touch down on Martian soil. If, however, the landing site looked unsuitable, the spacecraft would make slight adjustments to touch down on a suitable adjacent site.

After the highly sophisticated maneuvers, the capsule successfully landed at 7:18 am on the southern part of the Utopia Planitia, a large plain within Utopia, the largest known impact basin on Mars and in the solar system.
In the coming days, the rover, which was recently named Zhurong after an ancient Chinese god of fire, is scheduled to observe and map the landing site, perform self-examinations and then leave the capsule to roam the landing area for scientific surveys, the administration said.

If it steps safely on the Martian soil and works as planned, Zhurong will become the sixth rover deployed on Mars, following five predecessors launched by the United States. It will also give Chinese scientists their first opportunity to closely observe Mars, which was first recorded in the country on oracle bone inscriptions in about 1300 BC.

Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the Tianwen 1 probe, has said that a rover will need to overcome an array of difficulties on Mars such as disturbed reception of sunlight and extreme weather to survive and operate.

He said the Chinese rover has been programmed to enter dormancy under extreme circumstances and then reactivate itself.

Up in the Martian skies, the Tianwen 1 orbiter has returned to its parking orbit and will continue circling the reddish sphere for mapping and measurement tasks with seven scientific instruments, including a high-resolution imager and magnetometer. It will also relay signals between the ground control and the Zhurong rover.

Zhurong is 1.85 meters high and weighs about 240 kilograms. It has six wheels and four solar panels, can move at 200 meters an hour on the Martian surface, and carries six scientific instruments, including a multispectral camera, a meteorological sensor and ground-penetrating radar.

If the semi-autonomous craft functions efficiently, it will work for at least three months and undertake comprehensive surveys of the planet.

Its success will mark the completion of all of Tianwen 1's mission objectives:

1. orbiting Mars for comprehensive observation,

2. landing on the planet

3. deploying a rover to conduct scientific operations

Also making Tianwen 1 the first Mars expedition to accomplish all three goals with one probe.

Named after an ancient Chinese poem, Tianwen 1 was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan, kicking off China's planetary exploration program.

The spacecraft travelled more than 470 million kilometers and carried out four midcourse corrections and a deep-space trajectory maneuver before entering a Martian orbit on Feb 10, when it was 193 million km from Earth – because the two celestial bodies keep moving on their own orbit, a Mars-bound spacecraft must fly in a carefully designed, curved trajectory to catch up with the red planet.

Depending on the two planets' orbits, the distance between Mars and Earth ranges from 55 million km to 400 million km.

On Feb 24, Tianwen 1 entered a preset parking orbit above Mars. The spacecraft was programmed to maintain that orbit for about three months to examine the preset landing site."



Xi sends congratulatory letter on Mars probe's historic landing - Chinadaily.com.cn

China lands its Zhurong rover on Mars - BBC News

Tianwen-1: Chinese 2020 Mars orbiter and rover


Awaiting NYT accepting this "news" is not fake.



Two down, one to go, fingers still crossed on number three.

[Klondyke]

China has successfully landed on Mars [Updated]
China has become only the second nation to make a soft landing on the red planet.
ERIC BERGER - 5/15/2021, 8:00 AM

10pm ET Friday Update: In what can aptly be described as a tremendous success, China has become only the second nation to soft land a spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

Chinese media report that the Zhurong rover is expected to roll off the lander within the next three Martian days to begin its exploration of the red planet.

Original post: As early as Friday evening in the United States, China will attempt to set its Tianwen-1 lander down on the surface of Mars. After weeks of speculation, the China National Space Administration confirmed that the country will seek to land the mission, including its "Zhurong" rover, sometime between 23:00 UTC on Friday, May 14 and May 19.

Named after an ancient fire god in Chinese mythology, the Zhurong rover has a mass of about 240 kg. This means the Chinese rover is comparable in size to the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that NASA landed on Mars in January 2004.

There is a lot of intrigue surrounding the high-risk mission. Before this mission, China had never sent a spacecraft to Mars. In this single spacecraft, the country packed both an orbiter and a modest-sized lander with a rover. Moreover, no country other than the United States has successfully soft-landed a spacecraft on Mars or deployed a rover. Other countries have tried and failed multiple times.

China has successfully landed on Mars [Updated] | Ars Technica



A small correction to that claim of 2 only countries are given by others ("different reporting"):
11:13, 15 May 2021
The USA ignored the landing of the USSR on Mars

Before China, only the United States made a successful soft landing on Mars, writes Ars Technica, ignoring the Soviet Mars-3 mission.

"China has become only the second country to make a soft landing on the Red Planet, which can be called a huge success," the American publication assures.

Ars Technica notes that the size and mass of the Zhurong rover of the Tianwen-1 mission is comparable to the American Spirit and Opportunity, which arrived on Mars in 2004.

The publication, in the material that came out before the announcement of the success of Tianwen-1, writes that “no country except the United States has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars and deployed a rover. “Other countries have tried and failed several times,” writes Ars Technica.

Spaceflight Now talks about the success of the PRC more objectively, recalling that before China, "only two countries have previously achieved a soft landing on the Red Planet." The publication of the American publication claims that the Soviet Mars-3 lander "was the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the surface of Mars in December 1971, but the probe stopped transmitting [data] after about two minutes [after landing]."

Chinese spacecraft Tianwen-1 with Zhurong rover made a successful landing on the surface of the Red Planet May 15 night. China was congratulated on this event in Russia and the United States.

В США проигнорировали высадку СССР на Марс: Космос: Наука и техника: Lenta.ru

The Soviet Union’s Mars 3 lander was the first spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Martian surface in December 1971, but the probe stopped transmitting about two minutes later.

China lands its first probe on Mars – Spaceflight Now

[Saint Willy]

Russian feelings hurted?

[helge]

^
Well spun

[Klondyke]

That's nothing unusual on such "different reporting". WH's speech last year to 75 years jubilee of WW2 Victory had also just 2 countries as victors...

[aging one]

That's nothing unusual on such "different reporting". WH's speech last year to 75 years jubilee of WW2 Victory had also just 2 countries as victors...

Klondyke, for 12 years Takeover has had his thread running. Its a space and science thread. Not a political one. Either keep it that way or simply stay the f%$k away. Only you comrade. Take a look. Only you, and perhaps the Chinese apologist Uh Oh.

[helge]

I guess that I can see Klondike's point.

Not long ago we had a super hyped Mars landing or such. US

Eventhough I couldn't give a shit about their space crap, I couldn't help notice it, being on every media with a tiny bit of news.

Lucky for me, it's not interesting when the Chinese send something up


When their junk comes back down, it is a different story

Then the hype goes again


I reckon it smells a bit


Political

[Klondyke]

Klondyke, for 12 years Takeover has had his thread running. Its a space and science thread. Not a political one. Either keep it that way or simply stay the f%$k away. Only you comrade. Take a look. Only you, and perhaps the Chinese apologist Uh Oh.

Perhaps you missed the point. It's nothing political, it's factional... And it is regrettable, that also some scientific sources are tending into political way.

And for some like you, they always twist the facts and the meaning of the comment into the way as it suits to them. Wondering why you did not comment on your friend who brought up the political side? I just reacted on his stupid remark...

Russian feelings hurted?

[OhOh]

When their junk comes back down, it is a different story

Then the hype goes again


I reckon it smells a bit


Political

As has been highlighted this a very well managed thread. Polite, informative and factually based info is offered to all, especially by our resident expert.



There are some TD posters who abuse it. Generally those who forget the incidents the previous leaders were involved in over the past decades.

There are some ready to accuse China of misdeeds due to their own personal reasons.

Focus on the science, the efforts, the achievements. Not the poster or which flag they wave.

the Chinese apologist Uh Oh

No apologies needed in this thread. The new kid on the block, China, is delivering on schedule. So far.

[Takeovers]

A picture of the Zhurong rover, to show its real size. Not small, even if most of it is the solar panels. The design life time is 3 months. Which is the same as the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity which worked for many years.

China has landed on Mars - The Verge

China landed its first pair of robots on the surface of Mars on Friday, state-affiliated media confirmed on social media, becoming the second country to do so successfully after overcoming a daring, seven-minute landing sequence. The country’s Tianwen-1 spacecraft ejected the rover-lander bundle for a Martian touchdown at around 7PM ET, kicking off a mission to study the Red Planet’s climate and geology.


The mission marks China’s first independent trek to Mars, about 200 million miles away from Earth. Only NASA has successfully managed to land and operate rovers on the planet in the past. (The Soviet Union’s Mars 3 spacecraft landed on the planet in 1971 and communicated for about 20 seconds before unexpectedly going dark.) China’s mission, involving three spacecraft working together, is ambitiously complex for a first-timer — the first US mission, Viking 1 in 1976, only involved a lander deployed from its probe.


The landing took place at Utopia Planitia, a flat swath of Martian land and the same region where NASA’s Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976. After touching down, the lander will unfurl a ramp and deploy China’s Zhurong rover, a six-wheeled solar-powered robot named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology. The rover carries a suite of onboard instruments, including two cameras, a Mars-Rover Subsurface Exploration Radar, Mars Magnetic Field Detector, and Mars Meteorology Monitor.


The Tianwen-1 spacecraft launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in China’s Hainan province on July 23rd last year, setting off on a seven-month trek to the Red Planet. The spacecraft trio “has functioned normally” since it entered Mars orbit in February, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said in a statement Friday morning. It collected a “huge amount” of scientific data and snapped photos of Mars while in its orbit.

The Tianwen-1 orbiter, clutching the rover-lander bundle, has been scoping out the Utopia Planitia landing site for over three months, flying close to Mars every 49 hours in an elliptical orbit (an egg-shaped orbital pattern), according to Andrew Jones, a journalist covering China’s activities in space.


Now on the Martian surface, the Zhurong rover will embark on a mission of at least three months to study Mars’ climate and geology.


“The main task of Tianwen-1 is to perform a global and extensive survey of the entire planet using the orbiter, and to send the rover to surface locations of scientific interests to conduct detailed investigations with high accuracy and resolution,” the mission’s top scientists wrote in Nature Astronomy last year. The roughly 240kg rover is nearly twice the mass of China’s Yutu Moon rovers.


Tianwen-1 is the name of the overall Mars mission, named after the long poem “Tianwen,” which means “Questions to Heaven.” It marks the latest in a quick succession of advances in space exploration for China. The country became the first nation in history to land and operate a rover on the far side of the Moon in 2019. It also completed a brief lunar sample mission in December last year, launching a robot to the Moon and swiftly returning it back to Earth with a cache of Moon rocks for evaluation.

[Takeovers]

A rare photo of the real Chinese Mars rover before launch, not a model.

We have not seen anything yet, what the rover has done after landing.

[OhOh]

A general "space" question.

Who would want to move to another planet, the Moon, Mars .... if it was offered?

Reasons to accept and alternatively to remain.

Although the whole space flight topic is of great interest to me, the science, the technology, the achievements .... my answer would be thanks but no, thank you.

Mainly due to the confines of living in a very constrictive environment. The ability to "live" I would suggest practically impossible.

The only positive thing to experience would be "weightlessness". It looks enjoyable but ....

Please move if considered off-topic.

[OhOh]

We have not seen anything yet, what the rover has done after landing.

Are the solar panel support legs for display only? They appear fragile.

China's Tianwen-1 probe sends back Mars landing visuals

Xinhua | Updated: 2021-05-19 18:27

"Two photos and two videos captured by China's Mars probe Tianwen-1 during and after the country's first landing on the red planet were released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Wednesday. The lander carrying a rover of the Tianwen-1 mission touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, on May 15, becoming the country's first probe to land on a planet other than Earth.

The first photograph, a black and white image, was taken by an obstacle avoidance camera installed in front of the Mars rover. The image shows that a ramp on the lander has been extended to the surface of Mars. The terrain of the rover's forward direction is clearly visible in the image, and the horizon of Mars appears curved due to the wide-angle lens.

Attachment 68960

The second image, a color photo, was taken by the navigation camera fitted to the rear of the rover. The rover's solar panels and antenna are seen unfolded, and the red soil and rocks on the Martian surface are clearly visible in the image.


Attachment 68961

It appears to have moved down the ramp onto the surface, but the angle may be deceptive.

One, possibly two steps further than Russia's attempts, some decades ago.

1. Communication.

2. A moving + stopping controllable? camera functioning rover.

[Takeovers]

The legs are to support the solar arrays in Earth gravity. On Mars they are not needed.

The 2 pictures embedded.

[MarilynMonroe]

A picture of the Zhurong rover, to show its real size

Wow! That looks like some real Star Trek type of stuff!!
Kudos to China for landing on mars! Great thread as well, very informative.

I came across this article that I thought may be of interest. It is music making on mars. The Perseverence rover landed with two microphones and was able to record the first sounds on mars.


Music on Mars: If you thought space was silent, take a closer listen


Until now, Mars had been a silent mystery.

After years of attempts and failures to get a microphone to Mars, NASA's latest rover, Perseverance, succeeded. It landed in February carrying two microphones.

For Jason Achilles Mezilis, a musician and record producer who has also worked for NASA, listening to the haunting Martian wind was an emotional experience.

"I'm in this bar half drunk, and I go over to the corner and I listen to it on my cellphone and … I broke down."


The atmosphere of Mars is a little thinner than Earth's, but it still has enough air to transmit sound.
Ben Burtt, an Oscar-winning sound designer, editor and director, made the sounds of cinematic space fantasy — from Star Wars to WALL-E to Star Trek. But he's also deeply interested in the sound of actual space reality.

"All sound is a form of wind, really. It's a puff of air molecules moving. And when I heard the sound, I thought: 'Well, you know, I've heard this many times in my headphones on recording trips,'" Burtt said.

"But you tell me that this is a sound made by Perseverance, of course, I suddenly adapt my view to this amazing bit of data from a planet that we've never heard anything like this before. And it takes on a very special meaning." Below are some sounds of space — and the sonic beauty of the cosmos.

An electromagnetic symphony

Space is full of radio waves, from both spacecraft and natural phenomena. One beautiful example is the "dawn chorus," radio waves sent to earth when solar winds interact with Earth's magnetosphere.


Read more here:
Music on Mars: If you thought space was silent, take a closer listen | CBC Radio

Sounds of Mars
Sounds of Mars - NASA Mars

[Takeovers]

A general "space" question.

Who would want to move to another planet, the Moon, Mars .... if it was offered?

Reasons to accept and alternatively to remain.

Although the whole space flight topic is of great interest to me, the science, the technology, the achievements .... my answer would be thanks but no, thank you.

Mainly due to the confines of living in a very constrictive environment. The ability to "live" I would suggest practically impossible.

It is always a very small minority. Some people go. Why go to Mars? Because it is there.

In the beginning just a handful of people, for the challenge. Then things get slightly easier and more people go. One million people is a very small part of humanity.

[OhOh]

China’s Mars rover drives across planet a week after landing


Solar-powered Zhurong rover is expected to be deployed for 90 days to search for evidence of life

Sat 22 May 2021 09.33 BST

"China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the planet, China’s space administration has said.

The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10:40am on Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), the China National Space Administration said.

China landed the spacecraft carrying the rover on Mars last Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in a first for the country. It is the second country to do so, after the United States.
Named after the Chinese god of fire, Zhurong, the rover has been running diagnostics tests for several days before it began its exploration on Saturday. It is expected to be deployed for 90 days to search of evidence of life.

The US also has an ongoing Mars mission, with the Perseverance rover and a tiny helicopter exploring the planet. Nasa expects the rover to collect its first sample in July for return to Earth in a decade.

China’s ambitious space plans include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon. In 2019, China became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon, and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s."

China’s Mars rover drives across planet a week after landing | Mars | The Guardian

[Saint Willy]

drives across planet

Slight hyperbole.

[OhOh]

Slight hyperbole.

One should always be somewhat sceptical of Guardian articles.

One hopes this reports language, "starting its exploration around the landing site", is more acceptable to your sensitivities.

Although this:

"no country had ever tried to send an orbiter, a lander and a rover in one single expedition to Mars.",

could be possibly more accurately written as:

"no country had ever tried to send an orbiter, a lander and a rover in their first expedition to Mars."

China's Zhurong rover moves onto Martian surface to begin scientific operations

By Zhao Lei | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-05-22 14:07

"The Chinese Martian rover Zhurong moved from its landing platform onto the surface of the Red Plane at 10:40 am Saturday, starting its exploration around the landing site, according to the China National Space Administration. The administration said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that according to data sent back to the ground control, the rover's deployment was carried out safely and smoothly, adding that it has formally embarked on scientific tasks.

The 240-kilogram robot is tasked with surveying Mars' landforms, geological structures, soil characteristics, locations of water and ice, atmospheric and environmental traits as well as magnetic, gravitational and other physical fields, the statement said.

Saturday's deployment marked the beginning of a new challenging chapter in the Tianwen 1 mission, one of the most sophisticated space adventures mankind has ever attempted.

Before Tianwen 1, no country had ever tried to send an orbiter, a lander and a rover in one single expedition to Mars.

Tianwen 1's landing capsule touched down on Mars on the morning of May 15, becoming the first Chinese spacecraft that has ever landed on another planet.
President Xi Jinping called the probe's arrival in Mars a landmark achievement in China's space cause as it left the nation's first mark on the Red Planet.

Named after an ancient Chinese god of fire, Zhurong is now about 320 million kilometers from Earth. It is the sixth rover on Mars, following five predecessors launched by the United States.
The 1.85-meter-tall machine is propelled by six wheels and powered by four solar panels, being capable of moving at 200 meters an hour on the Martian surface.

Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, major maker of Chinese spacecraft, Zhurong carries six scientific instruments including multispectral camera, shallow subsurface radar and meteorological measurer.

If the semi-autonomous vehicle functions efficiently, it will work for at least three months and undertake comprehensive surveys of the planet."

China's Zhurong rover moves onto Martian surface to begin scientific operations - Chinadaily.com.cn

[Saint Willy]

If the semi-autonomous vehicle functions efficiently, it will work for at least three months and undertake comprehensive surveys of the planet."

speaking of hyperbolic language...

[aging one]

speaking of hyperbolic language...

Ain't that the truth.... Uh Oh right now...

[cyrille]

One should always be somewhat sceptical of Guardian articles.

So you do have a sense of humour after all.