After 7 months in space, the U.S. Trailblazer went to work, and China's Tianwen-1 is doing

On March 10, 2021, NASA revealed the work of its fifth Mars rover, Trail, on Mars, 170 million kilometers away from Earth. The "Mars rover", which is about the size of a typical family SUV, has already begun taking close-up photos of rocky targets on Mars that it has targeted.

Of course, the first place the Americans chose to land on Mars is a river that may have flowed into a deep lake in the upper reaches of the planet 3.5 billion years ago. It is also a fan-shaped delta, which is expected to have a lot of sediments.

This would also be very useful for searching for traces of life left beneath Martian rocks - perhaps the remains of some Martian microbes, etc. Of course, whether there is really what scientists expect, it is still necessary, for people in the laboratory on Earth, to complete the final analysis of the Martian rock samples.

Therefore, it must collect no less than 24 rock and soil samples in a sealed tube, and will be its plan to send them back to Earth for physical analysis sometime in 2030.

But until then, people can get a first glimpse of what's in store with the super camera onboard the Trail. The first "picture" data samples, looking for clues to whether life existed on the red planet in the past, have been sent back to Earth.

Of course, this trip to Mars is not just for Americans, but an epoch-making annual event!

A new era of Mars with three arrows?

On July 23, 2020, China's first self-developed Mars probe, Tianwen-1, was launched!

Three days ago, the Hope Probe, which was paid for by Emirates Airline and launched by Japan, also lifted off.

A week later, the U.S. 5th generation Mars rover, Trailblazer, followed in the footsteps of China and the UAE and was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida!

In this way, Hope, SkyQuest, and Trailblazer, together crossed hundreds of millions of kilometers to Mars. Originally ESA also wanted to join the fun, except that for various reasons, had to announce the launch postponed, and miss the Mars window period.

After July ......

On February 9, 2021, the "Hope", which carries the dreams of the UAE tycoons of Mars, was the first to arrive in Mars orbit. With a cost of $200 million, seven months, and 493.5 million kilometers flown, the UAE became the fifth country to successfully deploy a Mars exploration mission, following the Soviet Union, the United States, ESA, and India.

A day later, China's Tianwen-1, after 215 days of flight, also entered orbit around Mars, successfully becoming the 6th visitor to Mars. And will remain coupled in Mars orbit for a while after the flight, and will only land on the surface of Mars in May this year, becoming the first human mission to explore the fire in the first mission to complete the "around, down, patrol" three mission challenges of the country.

8 days later, the U.S. Trail is also coming, unlike the first visit of China and the United Arab Emirates, lightly familiar with it, will not circle the orbit of Mars, but will be inserted directly into the orbit of Mars, the direct landing way to reach the surface of Mars. This process is also the famous "7 minutes of terror".

I have to say, the UAE, China, and the United States this time the three arrows, are very historic! It is a symbolic representation of the human race on Earth, on the road to Mars exploration of a hundred flowers bloom!

Troika, locking their different targets

Of course, the Emirates Hope, this $200 million trip to Mars, does not intend to land on Mars, but simply to become an artificial satellite of Mars. It will rotate around Mars and then use a high-resolution probe imager to study its atmosphere and climate change from a space perspective. You can simply think of it as a meteorological satellite of Mars.

But China's is different. Tianqian-1 carries a very heavy task. Not only to place the orbiter in Mars orbit but also to send the Mars rover to "kill" the Mars ground, no less than 90 Mars days of ground research work.

The U.S. Trailblazer will burn more money, a full cost of $ 2.7 billion. It before, Courage, Opportunity, and Curiosity have long given it a lot of hard nails.

And this time it also took 10 years to bring together the most cutting-edge technology of NASA to date: seven major payloads, a robotic arm, a vehicle-mounted remote-controlled helicopter, 25 cameras, and the first microphone that can record the sound of Mars. The biggest difference is that it is also equipped with a nuclear energy supply, which not only facilitates its power generation on cold nights without sunlight but also sustains the energy needed for at least one Martian year and 687 Earth days of continuous work.

What is the gap between China's Tianwen-1 and the U.S. Trailblazer?

At this point, it is probably clear to you that while the Trailblazer is searching for ancient life on Mars. Our SkyQuest One is not idle ...... for the exploration of Mars, we have their rhythm.

We can use a not-so-appropriate image analogy: Tianqian-1, like a rookie in the NBA, is just warming up in its rookie season. But for the Trailblazer, it is also considered to be sharpened for several seasons James, his goal is very focused, is to lock the NBA championship - to explore the discovery of life on Mars.

In contrast, in our SkyQuest One, there are still many multiple engineering verification tasks that need to be completed! When you first arrive, you at least have a process to familiarize yourself with the environment. There are many things, not that we can't do them, but there is a process that needs to be considered in its entirety. Many precision instruments and theoretical ideas, but also need sufficient reliable support to do.

Just like this time, once we came to Mars, people Trailblazer dared to go headlong into Mars, we still have to carefully circle sometimes, choose the best place, the best point in time before going to land, it is not to say that our technology is inferior to others. From the experience value, indeed inferior to others! So the caution of SkyQuest 1 is not unreasonable!

The very dreamy big landlord in the field of spaceflight

Compared to our stable and orderly, the UAE is more like an overbearing tycoon, spreading money to open up the road, extremely wild smashing out the space power of the alien! Even if it does not have its rocket development, or its launch site, through the huge money open road, international cooperation model, the UAE in about six years, to achieve its own space goals.

Starting from scratch, building its satellite; sending astronauts to space, and now launching a Mars probe ......

The dream that took people decades to accomplish has been done in less than a decade by the newcomer to space, the UAE, in a miraculous fashion! However, the cost, not the average person can learn, from the establishment of the space agency in 2014 to today they have spent no less than $ 6 billion, evenly spread, $ 1 billion per year, even if it is extremely expensive space field, they are also considered broad.

And, their goal is not only here, the oil giant, design a very ambitious goal - "UAE 2117 Mars settlement plan", the journey to explore the fire, is just their meat dishes.

More than 500 years ago, mankind began a new chapter of the Great Age of Navigation, we missed one of the most beautiful times. But now facing the vast universe, there are more unknowns and possibilities, is it another new historical reincarnation and mankind will enter another "Great Age of Navigation" belonging to the universe?