No worries and thanks for the greeting! A welcome change from being haunted by my own mistakes! Great community here too.

What are the circular patches on the back of the rover? There must be some reason they don't have solar cells on them.

I wonder how much artistic license there is in that image, or will even the camera calibration target look so familiar...

This is the best photo i have seen from the Zhurong. I have been alerted that these are thermal windows,.. so.. i don't know.

English is my first language, but this literally does not make any sense. "Tokenized"? NFT? And who are Fude Sports, apparently "the copyright owner of the photo"? The whole thing sounds ridiculous - unless someone here sees something I don't?

Non-Fungible Token - I can't explain it other than saying look it up as I just had to do (not trying to be rude, I just can't explain it). The post seems to imply that China has sold the rights to the first image to some entity or other. I find it hard to believe. But as we know the whole world has gone crazy.
Phil

Think of NFT's like ownership rights of artwork. Someone might privately own a famous painting, giving them the right to say "hey I own that, that's mine," even if that doesn't give them the right or ability to control how the image of that art is used. We can all use, modify and post images of, for example, the Mona Lisa, without fear of copyright infringement. It's "non-fungeable," because of course it can't be thought of as a common medium of exchange (like normal currencies). Generally, therefore, one can usually be safe transferring over what they think of the art market over to NFTs. That being said, the whole concept is an application of blockchain technology to keep a secure record of ownership, so it might be part of an emerging field of secure commodity exchange - imagine every commodity having a "seal of authenticity." It might also be just the latest blockchain-related fad. I don't really know.

Based on the Twitter feed linked to by Huguet, it appears that the rover is named Zhurong and that there will be a landing attempt 14 May/2300 UTC, approximately 19 hrs from this post. Accordingly, please direct discussion of EDL to this new thread.

I trade Crypto

Its an image sold off like as a Crypto currency. Its a rare digital asset and yes it is real...the NFT crypto market is over 100 million USD


so in essence, its a blockchain painting

Landed Successfully!

https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/05/15/china...-probe-on-mars/

I cant find much information on the instrument loadout of the Zhurong rover but it appears to be packed with instruments. Does anybody have a rundown on what CNSA is trying to study here? Or is it more of a technology demonstrator?

Some information here:

https://spacenews.com/chinas-zhurong-mars-r...topia-planitia/

It mentions 6 science payloads.

Here is a somewhat detailed article from the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences, M.U.S.T./ Macau Space Exploration and Science Center of the National Space Administration.

The Wikipedia entry is also worth reading.

Fernando

Wow! Tianwen-1 observed from a deployed sub-satellite.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/hUJHZD10VONAulzIXnfFtA

Very cool indeed! The website linked to by Andrew Jones here:

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1477077043435163650

(same one Hungry4info linked to) also has a surface image from Zhurong, and says the rover has driven 1400 m in 225 days (I assume that means sols).

Phil

That's the third deployable camera of the mission (2 on orbiter, 1 on rover) I really liked this feature, but i believed the deployable camera on the rover should be reusable..

the Chinese journal Scientia Sinica Technologica has a lot of papers on TW-1 and Zhurong in its latest issue (unfortunately, most if not all papers are in Chinese)
https://www.sciengine.com/publisher/scp/jou...2/2?slug=browse

Thank you very much Paolo : it's very interesting indeed

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1504905964817981440

Andrew Jones tweets news of a HiRISE image only a week old!

Phil

Two details, enlarged and contrast-enhanced. I will use this to update my map.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

That whole HiRISE section is amazing. I look forward to the on-ground view of that "ejecta scar".

-Bill

Image taken 11/march... freshly...
https://www.uahirise.org/ESP_073225_2055

Interesting comparation beetween Hirise from June/2021 and March/2022 on the tracks, to see how the dust act on then...

Thank you very much Huguet for those nice processings of yours

Check out this article:

https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-03-24/doc-i...ii0221404.shtml

Images of Zhurong from orbit recently, plus orbital views and even an image of Perseverance during its last sampling operation near the landing site.

Phil

Thank you very much Phil for the link !
This Chinese publication was anticipated since a new HiRISE image was published

You are welcome. It is visible the action of the dust in the white jet fuel surrounding the lander. On the tracks we can see little action, most the tracks are still the same 1 year latter.

I was missing new Zhurong pictures.

Here follows a processing of the released one showed on Phil link. The dust appears to be acting more at the transmitter mast.

This open-access paper:

https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/remotesen...14-00709-v2.pdf

describes the descent imaging used by the TW-1 lander for hazard avoidance and localization.

Phil

Nice images, Huguet. I wonder why the ground along the vented fuel shows as a white color. My initial view of it was in black.and white, so I assumed it was a lighter tone of the Martian ochre. The white surprises me.
And I be interested in seeing the dust accumulation on the solar panels.

--Bill

I will do some more comparations. Here follow the parachute beetween almost 1 year of exposure.

An update tweeted by Andrew Jones:

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1522461426010443776

and the link it contains:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/upO6NTh-AZ7oNLjv0BmNdw

Two orbiter images and a new view of a crater with rocks on its rim.

Phil

This is the new surface image roughly projected for perspective"

Click to view attachment

And the location in the latest HiRISE image with the surface image field of view approximately mapped. The rover is visible at the upper edge.

Click to view attachment

Phil

Thanks Phil.
Appears to me that the stones has changed a lot since the first ones...

The early rock might have been weathered on the surface for a hundred million years. The later rock looks like it was recently excavated by a small impact, so much less weathered. But we need a better image of the new rock!

Phil

Sun Zezhou, chief designer of Tianwen-1, delivered a presentation about China's Mars exploration goals. In it, it was mentioned that Tianwen-1 will test aerobraking at Mars to lower its orbit to gain some experience for this ahead of the future Tianwen-3 mission. Presumably this means the orbital period and thus the regularity with which it can act as a relay for Zhurong will change, but I haven't seen anything about that so far.

Here is a good open access paper on rover mapping:

http://scis.scichina.com/en/2022/172201.pdf

Phil

Thank you very much Phil for this useful link

Some new images from Tianwen-1.

This tweet from Andrew Jones shows a surface image from the same original Chinese source as those orbiter views:

https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1542045651101442049

Here is the image in a rough perspective view:

Click to view attachment


I believe it was taken at the last point on this map, approx. sol 300 of the mission:

Click to view attachment


A Tianwen-1 orbiter image of the rover at that location was also released earlier - showing tracks and the rover (also in post #74 above):

https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-03-24/doc-i...ii0221404.shtml

(The orbiter image is one of those on that site)

The map I posted here does not show the more recent drives and the current location at the hibernation point. That will follow.

Phil

Hello Phil, Here follows the original link: http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/2022/06-29/9791303.shtml

I Attached the original image and a processed one.

I believe these lines at the dune are new for me. It would be nice if Zhurong get some closes of then, to understand how they are forming.

Apears to be related with these black spots, mabe some light material pushed by wind, creating random patterns.

Interesting! Rather a miniature version of the Walking Rocks at Death Valley. Possibly wind-moved rocks among saltating sand grains?

Maybe we can get Ralph Lorenz on the case?
#ralphlorenz

--Bill

To me it looks like erosion of an armored dune, or more like a large ripple; effectively a blowout. As erosion progressed, armoring pebbles rolled down the slope

Yes, I'm inclined to agree. Very interesting locale! There are aspects that remind me of the yardangs in the Argentine Puna (where there are also gravel ripples) but I dont think I've seen rock tracks like this on a ripple.

It doesnt look like there is a lot of slope to drive motion, so presumably the rolling pebbles are wind-driven (or just possibly they roll when wind undercuts the sand from underneath). But if the sand can move, how are the trails preserved ? I dont doubt some modeler could come up with a scenario, but it would take a bit of fine-tuning for sand to be scoured in the lee of a pebble but not elsewhere...

It definitely looks like an armored dune overall, maybe an ejecta layer from a nearby impact covered the dune, immobilizing it, and then as you say, once the wind gets in it undercuts and blows out parts

Ralph

Likely explanation, rlorenz. The Racetrack playa was a humorous stretch prompted by the low slope of this area. Clearly this is a wind-driven process, but how are sub-centimeter, millimeter-sized pebbles leaving such well defined trails?
Mars never ceases to amaze.

--Bill

How about an alternative to the wind? A crater forms some distance away, ejecting a block which impacts at low velocity near this location, making a secondary crater. The low velocity of the secondary crater's own ejecta results in a spray of small fragments which fall on the surface, having enough momentum to roll or skid along the surface briefly to create the observed effect. Finer material in that little ejecta cloud is slowed by the atmosphere and falls elsewhere. If this sounds a bit ad hoc, fair enough, but this process must occur frequently all over Mars. Think of just throwing a handful of gravel over the ground and what that would look like.

Phil

One thing for shure....

Zhurong Team from casc/csna... where are the close pictures of these moving material? .... we would love to see it...

This is the thread for the orbiter, isn't it? Perhaps some of these posts should go to the Zhurong rover thread.

ADMIN MODE: Noted. The discussion here evolved a bit from landforms observed from orbit to same observed by the rover, but if the focus remains on the latter & these apparent 'roving pebbles' then it'll be moved over to the Zhurong thread. Fascinating stuff regardless.

Tianwen-1 has snapped a pic of Phobos.
(source here)

http://jdse.bit.edu.cn/sktcxb/cn/article/d....2096-9287.2023.

This is a link to China's Journal of Deep Space Exploration, and a notice of a forthcoming paper on Phobos observations by the TW-1 orbiter. There is an English language summary with interesting details. It will probably be another 3 or 4 months before the actual paper is released. More observations than the one shown above have already been made.

summary:

-----------------------------------
Orbit Design and Analysis of the Phobos Close Approach Exploration Mission for Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter

ZHENG Huixin1, 2 , , XIE Pan1, 2 , , Li Haiyang1, 2 , ZHU Xinbo1, 2
1. Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering, Shanghai 201109, China

2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Deep Space Exploration Technology, Shanghai 201109, China

Abstract: In this paper, the mission orbit design and analysis of a potential extended mission, Phobos close approach exploration, is carried out. The state at the end of the main mission is used as the input of the extended mission in this paper. Through analysis, it is concluded that Mars perturbation force can be used to adjust the argument of perigee, and the intersection frequency is related to the value of semi-major axis and eccentricity. Orbit descent maneuver should be performed to increase the number of intersections. As a result, the possibility of conducting aerobraking in order to reduce fuel consumption is analyzed. Finally, phase adjustment maneuver is calculated to complete the Phobos Close Approach Exploration Mission. The orbit design results and the velocity increment are given by simulation. The results of this paper can provide reference for the orbit design of Tianwen-1 orbiter extended missions.
Key words: Phobos close approach exploration / Orbit design / Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter

Highlights
- Under the condition that the remaining fuel of Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter is considerably limited and the Orbiter cannot be directly transferred to the orbit of Phobos, this paper utilized Mars perturbation force in adjusting the argument of perigee to make the orbit of the orbiter intersect with the orbit of Phobos.
- The intersecting frequency between the orbit of Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter and Phobos is related to the value of semi-major axis and eccentricity. The intersecting frequency can be maximized by designing appropriate orbital parameters.
- In order to complete the close approach detection of Phobos, the Orbiter has to maneuver from the remote sensing orbit to the extended mission orbit. The Mars aerobraking is adopted as the orbital descent maneuver strategy, which can reduce fuel consumption by 80%.
- By designing an appropriate phase adjustment orbit period, the phase adjustment velocity increment can be controlled within 10m/s under the worst conditions of approach detection phase.
-----------------------------------

Phil

Guo, X., Yan, J.G., Yang, X., Liu, L., Chen, Y.H., Ye, M. and Barriot, J.P., 2023. Simulation of Phobos gravity field estimation from Tianwen-1 flybys and implications for the modeling of Phobos’ internal structure. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.


This citation is to a paper on Phobos flybys. It deals with simulations but again shows considerable interest in the exploration of Phobos.

Phil