from lunar sampling to mars sampling, china's deep space exploration faces greater challenges
2024-09-07
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xinhua news agency, hefei, september 7 (reporters yu fei, guo chen, zhao jinzheng) after chang'e-6 achieved the first human sampling feat on the back of the moon, china has the courage to challenge the more arduous task of deep space exploration: bringing back samples from the more distant mars to explore the important scientific question of whether there is life on the red planet.
on september 5, this is the opening ceremony of the second deep space exploration (tiandu) international conference. xinhua news agency (photo by shi yalei)
recently, at the second international conference on deep space exploration (tiandu) held in huangshan city, anhui province, the venue for the theme report "tianwen-3 mars sample return mission" was packed. tianwen-3 mission chief designer liu jizhong discussed the latest progress of this mission with more than 100 chinese and foreign colleagues.
"this is an extremely technically challenging and exploratory space exploration mission that has not yet been achieved by mankind," liu jizhong said in an interview with xinhua news agency reporters after the meeting.
in the 1960s, humans began to explore mars. so far, more than 40 mars exploration missions have been carried out around the world, achieving flyby, orbit, landing and patrol exploration of mars. in 2021, tianwen-1 successfully landed on mars. this was china's first landing on an extraterrestrial planet, making it the second country in the world to successfully land on mars.
however, returning samples from mars to earth remains a difficult problem that has yet to be overcome by humanity, and china's tianwen-3 mission is focusing on this.
the distance between the earth and the moon is about 380,000 kilometers, while the average distance between the earth and mars is about 400 million kilometers. "mars is much farther away than the moon, and the environment is more complex." liu jizhong introduced that due to the current rocket carrying capacity, lunar sampling was originally achieved through one launch, but the mars sampling mission requires two launches. china plans to use two long march 5 carrier rockets in wenchang, hainan, in about 40 days in 2028 to launch the orbiter, returner assembly and lander and ascender assembly of tianwen-3 in two launches.
however, the difficulty of returning samples from mars is not only the launch, the entire mission process is very complicated, including 13 stages, and adopts detection methods such as in-situ and remote sensing. "technically, we need to break through key technologies such as mars surface sampling, takeoff and ascent, orbiting mars, and planetary protection, so as to lay the early technical reserves for the future continuous exploration and application of mars." liu jizhong said.
the search for traces of life is listed as the first scientific goal of the tianwen-3 mission. liu jizhong said that the environment of mars is the closest to that of earth in the solar system, and whether life exists or has existed on mars is a major international scientific hotspot. other scientific topics include the martian climate and its evolution, martian geology and internal processes.
this is a schematic diagram of the tianwen-3 mission process. xinhua news agency (photo provided by the deep space exploration laboratory)
the number of samples collected by tianwen-3 in one mission is limited, so the entire r&d team has conducted a lot of research on where to collect samples, trying to find candidate points that may be rich in information about traces of life. after sufficient demonstration, candidate landing sites were initially selected at chryse planitia and utopia planitia. liu jizhong said that mars sample research and data research based on the full chain of traces of life will be carried out to ensure that samples can be retrieved and scientific discoveries can be made.
for mars sampling, the tianwen-3 team has designed three methods: multi-point surface sampling, fixed-point deep drilling sampling, and aircraft sampling, to achieve as much sampling diversity as possible. "for example, for mars surface sampling, we will use a manipulator to achieve a larger sampling range; while drilling will take samples at different depths and locations; we have also specially developed an aircraft that can collect samples at a farther range," said liu jizhong.
outer space exploration and discovery is a common cause and scientific research for all mankind, and china's mars sample return mission has also made its own commitments in martian environmental protection and international cooperation. liu jizhong said that the tianwen-3 mission will earnestly implement international conventions, carry out forward and return planetary protection, and ensure that mars and the earth are not polluted and the samples are original.
in the mission design, pollution prevention and monitoring is considered a very important part to avoid possible contamination caused by the plume of the lander engine, sampling and sample loading equipment, etc. researchers also studied the impact of high temperature, radiation and other conditions on potential biological traces in samples. "we will also build a mars sample laboratory, also called a planetary protection laboratory, to better conduct research on samples." liu jizhong said.
in addition, the tianwen-3 mission will carry out international cooperation, carrying scientific payloads jointly developed by chinese and foreign scientists. china will also work with scientists from all over the world to conduct cooperative sharing research on martian samples and data. in a longer-term vision, china will work with various countries or scientific research institutions to carry out mission and task definition, demand analysis, concept research, implementation plan design, and key technology research for the mars scientific research station, and jointly build a home on mars.
from the "chang'e lunar exploration" to the "tianwen mars exploration", china's exploration of deep space is a relay race.
"china's deep space exploration has taken one step at a time from the moon to mars, and a very good foundation has been laid in the early stages. it will be an inevitable trend for humans to land on mars in the future," said liu jizhong.
wu yanhua, chief designer of china's major deep space exploration project, also said that the international lunar research station initiated by china and the upcoming manned lunar landing and other tasks and plans will also lay the foundation for manned landing on mars in the more distant future.
source: xinhuanet
