Villa living room.
Yu Qiu handed the document report in his hand to Fang Hong and said: "The Mars exploration mission plan, just looking at the mission overview, it can be seen that it is extremely complicated, and it is indeed an ambitious plan."
Fang Hong took it and opened it. After briefly looking at the Saturn exploration mission plan, he then looked at the Mars exploration mission plan.
The Mars mission plan formulated this time is to first restart the scientific goals set by the previously failed "Yinghuo 1", namely: detect the Martian space magnetic field, ionosphere and particle distribution and their changing patterns; detect the ion escape rate of the Martian atmosphere; Detect the terrain, landforms and dust storms of Mars; detect the gravity field in the equatorial region of Mars.
In addition, the engineering goals of "Yinghuo 1" include: development technology of Mars probe; satellite-ground cooperation to achieve precise orbit determination and data transmission technology of 350 million kilometers of Mars probe; mastering orbit design, launch, and interplanetary cruise for Mars exploration , entering Mars orbit and deep space transportation control technology.
After completing these scientific and engineering goals, the most important event is the sample return mission. Restarting the "Yinghuo 1" detection mission also serves the purpose of bringing back Martian soil samples.
The new Mars exploration plan is tentatively named the "Tianwen: Mars Express" mission. The ultimate mission goal is to launch a probe to land on the surface of Mars and return Martian soil samples to Earth.
The entire Mars mission process.
The first is to launch the "Tianwen-1" probe to complete the mission of "Yinghuo-1". The next step is the Mars landing plan, that is, the "Tianwen-2" probe is sent to Mars and lands on the surface of Mars.
"Tianwen-2" will carry a Mars rover "Zhurong-1". One of the key tasks in its exploration mission is to dig soil near the landing site on the surface of Mars. "Zhurong-1" has prepared 52 sample tubes. These The tubes are made of special alloys and are all designed and assembled from a clean room.
Of course, both the "Zhurong-1" Mars rover and these sample tubes are required to be absolutely clean and pollution-free.
The impact on Mars is small, while the impact on Mars sampling is large.
Otherwise, if the sample is retrieved and found to have microorganisms on it, it will cause a sensation all over the world. The earth is not the only planet with life. After research, it is found that the sample tube is contaminated by earth microorganisms. It would be a big mistake to make such a big mistake.
Therefore, both the "Zhurong-1" Mars rover and the sample tubes it carries must ensure that there is absolutely no contamination.
According to the current design plan, "Zhurong 1" has the ability to collect samples, but it does not have the ability to directly study these samples on Mars, nor can it carry a microscope to directly analyze the samples.
The next task is to package and "express" these sample tubes back to Earth. It is not easy to "express" such as probes to Mars, and it is even more difficult to retrieve the samples. This process is extremely long and complicated.
According to the current plan, after "Zhurong-1" completes the sample collection work, the sample tubes will be directly thrown on the ground along the way, because "Zhurong-1" has other detection tasks, and it is not easy to send it to the surface of Mars. Just digging and sampling, that's just part of its job.
Although there are frequent sandstorms on Mars, the atmosphere of Mars is sparse, so there is no problem in collecting sample tubes and throwing them on the ground.
After that, the work of transporting sample tubes will be handed over to the "Zhurong 2" that will arrive at Mars later. The "Zhurong 2" will arrive at Mars two years later, and it will inevitably be equipped with more advanced technologies, including More advanced AI automation technology and more.
After the "Zhurong-1" completed the sample collection work, the Earth side has to prepare for the launch of the sample recovery lander. It will be launched from the Earth and will also fly through the Earth-fire transfer orbit for seven or eight months before it can reach Mars.
The lander is equipped with two very important devices. One is the "Zhurong-2" Mars rover responsible for sampling, which is responsible for finding the sample tubes collected by "Zhurong-1" and then sending these tubes to the lander.
The sampling process needs to be completed independently by "Zhurong 2", because the speed of light travels at the closest distance between Mars and the Earth for more than three minutes, so it is unrealistic to remotely control sampling from the Earth.
Another device is a launcher sent to the surface of Mars through a lander. It is a small rocket that can meet the escape velocity of Mars and enter the space orbit. There is a container inside this small rocket, which is responsible for storing samples.
After the samples are loaded, the small rocket cannot return directly to the Earth because the fuel of the small rocket is only capable of sending the samples to high altitudes in Mars orbit, and there is not enough fuel to support it in bringing the samples directly back to the Earth.
So there is a fourth launch mission.
The first launch mission is to restart "Yinghuo 1", the second mission is to launch "Zhurong 1" to land on the surface of Mars to sample samples, and the third mission is to launch "Zhurong 2" and a small rocket to sample.
The sample return to the lander is the fourth launch mission.
In order to ensure that the return lander in the sky can accurately receive the Martian soil samples, extremely complex and precise calculations must be carried out over the weekend.
After the fourth launch of the sample return lander arrived in Mars orbit and was ready, the small rocket that had been waiting on the surface of Mars for a long time was ignited and lifted off, sending the sample into space orbit, and then ejecting the sample container.
After the return lander on the orbit receives the sample container, an external robotic arm pushes it into the cabin. The robotic arm inside the cabin will put the sample container into the lander and finally close the cabin door.
After all these operations are successfully completed, the sample return lander will embark on its homeward journey. After seven or eight months of Hohmann transfer orbit flight, it will be captured by the earth's gravity and arrive above the earth. The lander will finally park into the atmosphere and is expected to be in the north. Landing in a hazy area.
At this point, we can finally get the coveted Mars sample. If the entire plan is ultimately successful, it will become the first country in the world to obtain a Mars sample.
Scientists will be able to answer 100% of the questions that the world is concerned about after conducting research and analysis on what exactly is on Mars and whether there is really life or whether life existed in the past.
According to the plan in the material report, it will take a total of about nine years from the first launch mission in 2016 to the fourth launch mission to bring back samples, that is, the samples will not be obtained until 2O25. This is still within the entire mission. Under the premise that nothing unexpected happens.
Because the exploration of extraterrestrial planets is restricted by launch windows, a launch window period from Mars to Earth is about 26 months. If you miss the window period, you will have to wait for the arrival of the next period.
Finally, after reading the mission overview of "Tianwen: Mars Express", Fang Hong closed the materials and couldn't help but said: "It is indeed complicated. The entire process must be carefully calculated. Only by making sure no mistakes are made in any link can the sample be brought back to Earth."
However, according to the four-launch plan of the program, even if the Mars samples are not brought back, it does not mean a complete failure, because four launches are equivalent to four sub-missions, and there must be gains.
Clearly, the sample return program is significant.
Once successful, it will not only create a world-shaking achievement, but more importantly, it can send a probe to Mars and return samples to Earth. The technology it masters means that it has the ability to send human astronauts to Mars and back to Earth.
There is no doubt that the success of the "Tianwen: Mars Express" mission will lay a solid technical foundation for the subsequent manned landing plan on Mars.
At this moment, Fang Hong reopened the file report and glanced at a few pages, then raised his eyes and looked at Yu Qiu: "Why don't these two deep space exploration projects have budget reports?"
After hearing this, Yu Qiu immediately replied: "Yes, but it is not in this material."
Fang Hongyan said concisely and to the point: "What's the budget?"
Yu Qiu immediately answered: "The overall budget estimate for the Saturn exploration mission is about 20 billion to 22 billion yuan, and the overall budget estimate for the Mars exploration mission is about 30 billion to 35 billion yuan."
The total budget of the two deep space exploration projects is 50 billion to 57 billion yuan, and the risk factor is very high. If they fail, tens of billions will be wasted.
There is no reference for previous experience in China. If you want to touch the eagle sauce across the river, they will not let you touch it. At most, you can use some published information as a reference. For example, the Saturn exploration mission plan refers to "Cassini" Exploration plan.
The difficulty and risk of both detection missions are extremely high, but the most difficult one is not the farthest Saturn detection mission, but the Mars detection mission, because the United States has not been able to bring back samples from Mars. .
Fang Hong put the materials in his hand aside, thought for a moment and then said directly: "That's right, let's advance the two deep space exploration projects at the same time."
…
(End of chapter)
