Original title: with Linux and XIAOMI 4 on the same chip on Mars, send back multiple color photos, how does perseverance "rewrite the textbook"?
The "three Martian heroes" launched by the United Arab Emirates, China and the United States in the 2020 window are now continuing their exploration journey according to their respective plans-the latest news is that the NASA perseverance rover has successfully landed on Mars and sent back a number of photos.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Mission Control Center in Southern California announced that at around 04:55 Beijing time on February 19, 2021, perseverance crashed into the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 19312 kilometers per hour. About 7 minutes later, it landed on Mars as a "sky crane" to reach Jazero Crater (Jezero Crater) in the area of 18 degrees north latitude and 77 degrees west longitude.
On the same day, perseverance also sent back its first image-a black-and-white map of the surface of Mars.
NASA: perseverance will rewrite textbooks
19:50 on July 30, 2020, Beijing time, the launch site 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Base (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station) in Florida was launched with the Atlas-5 carrier rocket (Atlas Vmi 541, also known as Cosmos 5) aboard the Yili.
Before landing on Mars, perseverance traveled in 203 days and spanned 472 million kilometers.
After landing, engineers and scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been waiting for the next data transmission from the rover.
Finally, less than a day after perseverance successfully landed on Mars, several spacecraft orbiting Mars sent back data one by one, and the team breathed a sigh of relief knowing that everything was going according to plan.
Regarding this important breakthrough, NASA acting Director Steve Jurczyk said:
This landing on Mars is one of the critical moments for NASA and global space exploration. We know that we are not far from the breakthrough discovery, it can be said that we are rewriting textbooks.
The news has also aroused widespread concern on major social platforms.
Perseverance sent back many pictures.
But as the press release on NASA's official website says:
Even more exciting are the high-resolution images taken by the probe when it landed.
In fact, as early as November 2011, NASA launched the Mars probe Curiosity-the seventh Mars probe in the United States, the fourth rover, and the world's first nuclear-powered rover, whose mission is to explore the elements of life on Mars.
Curiosity successfully landed on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012, when the probe sent back a stop-motion animation of the descent that was about to land on the surface of Mars, and this time perseverance, as Curiosity's successor, is equipped with a camera to capture the video of its landing process.
At present, the video is still being sent back to Earth and is being processed. Below is a screenshot of the video released by NASA.
It is understood that, unlike previous detectors, most of the cameras on perseverance are color, and NASA has obtained several color images through the cameras it carries.
The image below is from Hazcam at the bottom of perseverance, the first high-resolution color image of Mars taken by perseverance.
After landing, two Hazcam at the front and rear ends of perseverance also took pictures. The image below shows one of the rover wheels landing on the Martian soil.
In addition, NASA also released the following black and white close-up.
This image is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,MRO). As shown in the image below, MRO uses a special high-resolution camera (HiRISE camera) to capture the descent of the perseverance connected to the parachute.
As a multi-purpose Mars probe, MRO is designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (its HiRISE camera is taken care of by the University of Arizona). It was also launched by the Cosmos-5 carrier rocket on August 12, 2005. One of its goals is to find suitable landing sites for subsequent Mars landing missions and to provide communication relay functions for these missions:
On March 10, 2006, MRO entered the large elliptical Martian polar orbit
In September 2006, MRO entered the near-circular orbit of 250km/316km
On November 17, 2006, MRO partnered with Courage to complete the test of track relay communications.
In 2012, MRO used a high-resolution camera to capture Curiosity's landing on Mars.
Not only that, NASA said, the mast (the "head" of the rover) that had been fixed on the deck of the perseverance would be released later.
NASA's idea is that Navcams, a navigation camera for rovers, and two science cameras (the scalable Mastcam-Z and a laser called SuperCam) will "share" the space on the mast, and after the mast is raised, Navcams is expected to take panoramic pictures of the deck and its surroundings.
"the most complex robot geologist."
One of the key goals of perseverance is astrobiology, including searching for signs of ancient Martian microbial life formed 3.5 billion years ago. It will be the first mission to collect Martian rocks and weathering layers. NASA hopes to more accurately describe the geology and climate of Mars through perseverance.
As mentioned earlier, Yili's main exploration site is a place called Jazelo crater (Jezero Crater) on the western edge of the Martian Isidis Plain (Isidis Planitia) (north of the Martian equator), a huge impact basin about 45 kilometers wide. Previously, scientists had determined that 3.5 billion years ago, the "pit" had a delta, full of water.
In other words, this is a good starting point to understand Mars.
Naturally, scientific instruments are the key to achieving the ultimate goal-perseverance is, in NASA's words, "the most complex robot geologist."
Lei Feng previously reported that Yili has seven scientific instruments with a total weight of 59 kg (the Yili probe weighs 1026 kg):
Zoom panoramic camera Mastcam-Z: located on the mast, it can not only identify the rock composition and assist the rover, but also get high-definition panoramic 3D images.
Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer MEDA: record and analyze Martian atmospheric temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, wind direction, size and shape of dust
Oxygen generator MOXIE: extracting oxygen from carbon dioxide is not only a preparation for future astronauts landing on Mars to absorb oxygen, but also a source of fuel for spacecraft to return to Earth, so as to realize NASA's "oxygen generation plan".
X-ray instrument PIXL: more accurate analysis of Martian sand particles using X-rays
Mars Underground Experimental Radar Imager RIMFAX: exploring the underground structure of Mars at a centimeter resolution
Ultraviolet spectrometer SHERLOC: using ultraviolet laser to analyze substances to achieve the purpose of scanning habitable environment
Laser ultra-distance analyzer SuperCam: long-distance analysis of rock and soil composition.
In fact, not only the above instruments, perseverance carries a total of 23 cameras, most of which are color cameras.
In addition, perseverance is also equipped with two microphones, which can record the sound of a Mars rover landing on Mars and the movement of the wind on Mars, and this is the first time that the US Mars probe has been equipped with such a design. At present, NASA has also released a voice from Mars, listening to the mystery of the red planet and the fear of the vast universe.
Linux landed on Mars
The computer control system of perseverance is also worthy of attention.
Its computer system is in line with aviation industry standards, including two identical modules that are backup to each other, namely RCE (Rover Compute Element). The radiation-resistant CPU BAE RAD750 with IBM PowerPC 750architecture is ten times faster than the CPU carried by Spirit and opportunity.
In fact, followed by perseverance, a small solar-powered unmanned helicopter "Ingenuity".
The UAV, currently located in the abdomen of the perseverance, weighs 1.8kg and will be tracked by the camera for visual navigation; it is equipped with Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon processor, Qualcomm Inc flight control panel and Linux flight control system.
Earlier, JPL flight software engineer Timothy Canham told IEEE Spectrum:
The processor used in the Smart helicopter is Qualcomm Inc Snapdragon 801. this chip was released on February 24, 2014 and was used in the XIAOMI 4 released in July 2014.
According to CSDN, NASA has made Smart's Linux system open source on GitHub.
In response, a mikko from Finnish security company F-Secure tweeted:
Mars became the second planet to run Linux systems with more computers than Windows systems. )
It is understood that before Yili begins a two-year scientific survey of the crater, it will first undergo several weeks of testing.
For the Smart UAV, engineers and scientists will continue to test its speed and each instrument, subsystem and subroutine over the next month or two. When the tests are completed, the drones will not be able to carry out the flight test phase-if this is successful, there will be another dimension for human exploration of Mars. In the future, drones can be used as reconnaissance aircraft and even provide transportation services for astronauts on Mars.
Reviewing the history of human Mars exploration, we can see that the "three Martian heroes" launched successively by the United Arab Emirates, China and the United States in the 2020 window have all taken an eye-catching step.
NASA tweeted today:
The Best is Yet to Come.) the best is yet to come. )
Whether perseverance can rewrite the textbook remains to be seen.