Science

muriel_volestrangler

(101,316 posts) Wed Aug 24, 2016, 11:14 AM Aug 2016

China unveils designed concept of Mars probe

China plans to send a spacecraft to orbit Mars, make a landing, and deploy a rover in July or August 2020, said Zhang Rongqiao, chief architect of the Mars mission at a press conference in Beijing. "The challenges we face are unprecedented."

According to Ye Peijian, one of China's leading aerospace experts and a consultant to the program, the 2020 mission will be launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket from the Wenchang space launch center in south China's Hainan province.
...
Weighing around 200 kilograms, it is designed to operate for three Martian months, according to Sun Zezhou, chief designer of the probe.

The probe, for its part, will carry 13 payloads including a remote sensing camera and a ground penetrating radar which could be used to study the soil, environment, and atmosphere of Mars, as well as the planet's physical fields, the distribution of water and ice, and its inner structure.

http://english.cctv.com/2016/08/24/VIDEtwLqdg14iOAbpHb08nNw160824.shtml

(Not sure what a 'Martian month' is - because Phobos orbits Mars in under 8 hours, and Deimos about 30 hours. Hopefully, they mean "three of your Earth months, but on Mars".)

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China unveils designed concept of Mars probe (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Aug 2016 OP

They seem to be using Martian months as equivalent to earth-months. Jim__ Aug 2016 #1

Jim__

(14,076 posts)

1. They seem to be using Martian months as equivalent to earth-months.

Reply to muriel_volestrangler (Original post)

Wed Aug 24, 2016, 02:24 PM

Aug 2016

From phys.org:

...

The lander will separate from the orbiter at the end of a journey of around seven months and touch down near the Martian equator, where the rover will explore the surface, it said.

The 200-kilogramme (441 pounds) rover has six wheels and four solar panels, and will operate for around 92 days, according to Xinhua and other Chinese media reports.

...

A Martian day is pretty close to an earth day - about 24 hours and 40 minutes - from wikipedia:

The average length of a Martian sidereal day is 24h 37m 22.663s (88,642.66300 seconds based on SI units), and the length of its solar day (often called a sol) is 24h 39m 35.24409s (88,775.24409 seconds). The corresponding values for Earth are 23h 56m 4.0916s and 24h 00m 00.002s, respectively. This yields a conversion factor of 1.0274912510 days/sol. Thus Mars' solar day is only about 2.7% longer than Earth's.

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