I wish Rong successfully landed on the surface of Mars! It takes 3 days to walk 10 meters, why is it so slow?

Last Saturday, my country's Tianwen-1 successfully landed on Mars for the first time. After a week of waiting, the Zhurong rover went down the ramp mechanism today and successfully stepped onto the surface of Mars, creating the history of China's aerospace industry. This also means that my country has achieved the three goals of orbiting, landing and patrolling in one mission.

The images captured by Zhurong's front obstacle avoidance camera show that Zhurong is driving down the ramp mechanism of the landing platform smoothly, and the front wheels of the rover can be seen. The sun shines on Zhurong, and the shadow of the front obstacle avoidance camera projected on the ground of Mars is clearly visible.

From the pictures taken by the rear obstacle avoidance camera, we can see the whole picture of the entire landing platform, on which the Zhurong had been staying for the previous week. In addition, it can also be seen that the wheels of Zhurong left ruts on the surface of Mars, which is a major step forward in my country's exploration of Mars.

With the addition of Zhurong, on the current Mars, there are three rovers "galloping" on the surface of Mars. The other two are NASA rovers, Curiosity, which landed on Mars nine years ago, and Perseverance, which landed on Mars three months ago.

It only took 7 days for my country's Zhurong to officially drive on Mars. In contrast, NASA's Perseverance only made its first drive 14 days after landing on Mars. The waiting time for Perseverance was much longer than that of Zhurong. doubled. The Perseverance rover doesn't have a landing platform. It landed directly on Mars. Why wait two weeks to start driving?

NASA has successfully sent five rovers to Mars, and their landing methods are different from those of Zhurong. In the early days, NASA adopted the method of airbag bouncing to complete the final landing. The Mars rover was wrapped in the airbag. After the airbag landed, it bounced continuously until it finally stopped, the airbag was opened, and the Mars rover drove out. Both Spirit and Opportunity landed this way.

By the Curiosity rover in 2012, NASA adopted the "black technology" at that time - the aerial crane. After separating from the parachute, the Sky Crane's thrust reverser rocket started, and several long ropes extended below it, hanging the Curiosity rover. The aerial crane descended slowly, sending Curiosity to the surface, before detaching and crashing in the distance. The Perseverance rover did the same when it landed on Mars this year.

The way Zhurong landed on Mars is similar to the Yutu 1 and 2 that landed on the moon before. The landing platform started the reverse thrust rocket and carried the rover to descend continuously until it landed. This method has the highest security, and our country has accumulated a lot of experience.

Whether it is Zhurong or Perseverance, after the rover landed on Mars, it stayed in place and did not drive immediately. This is because the rover carries various equipment, and it takes a lot of time to debug it. It took Zhurong a week and Perseverance two weeks.

Next, Zhurong will officially start its Mars roaming journey. But Zhurong's traveling speed will be very slow. Like Yutu 2, it walks 200 meters per hour, which is 5.56 centimeters per second. And Zhurong will not keep walking, but take a break, and it is expected to walk 10 meters in 3 days.

Zhurong should constantly detect and analyze the surrounding environment to ensure that it is in a safe place. This is the first time we have probed the surface of Mars, and we are completely unfamiliar with the climate and environment on Mars, so we must be very cautious in every step, and be careful to drive the ten thousand year ship. After getting familiar with it later, you can consider driving faster.

Even NASA, which has probed Mars many times, has a very slow rover. It has been 2,215 hours since Perseverance landed on Mars, and it has only traveled 345 meters. Opportunity only walked 45 kilometers in 14 years on Mars, and Curiosity only walked 25 kilometers in 9 years, and the wheels were worn out.

In the next 3 months, Zhurong will conduct a full-scale exploration of Mars to complete the established goal of a 3-month design life. However, according to previous experience, Yutu No. 2, which has the same design life, can work normally for two years and four months, so I believe that Zhurong No. 2 can also exceed the target.