Reported on the 9ifly forum: sol 75, 708 m traversed. Waiting for pictures...

EDIT: here's a link to a picture: http://www.spaceflightfans.cn/96085.html

This is a reprojection of that image (original credit to CNSA for the image) and a plot of where I think it was taken.

Click to view attachment

Phil

First data releases! Including orbiter and rover images.

Phil



http://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/zhmanager/notice...detailId=790430



Announcement on the first batch of scientific exploration data of Tianwen No.1
Release time: 2021-07-30 Views: 5
During the real-time protection period of Tianwen No. 1 mission scientific data, data is open for access.


According to the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center (hereinafter referred to as the Engineering Center) "Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Engineering Data Release Management Measures", the scientific data of my country's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, will be open for data access within the protection period from now on.

The data released this time is produced and produced by the ground application system, including level 2B data of the Martian ion and neutral particle analyzer on the orbiter, level 2B data of the orbiter subsurface detection radar (very low frequency mode), and the terrain of the landing area of ​​the high-resolution camera Data products, as well as the 2C level data of the Mars rover navigation terrain camera, the 2B level data of the Martian surface composition detector, the 2C level data of the Mars meteorological measuring instrument, the 2B level data of the Mars rover surface detection radar, a total of 1789 data files, the total data volume is 179.1 GB, the specific data includes:



Surrounding device load:

1. Mars ion and neutral particle analyzer ( MINPA ) 2B level
Scientific data

2. Surrounding device subsurface detection radar ( MOSIR ) 2B level
Scientific data

3 . High-resolution camera ( HiRIC ) terrain data landing zone

4. High resolution camera ( HiRIC ) landing zone image data



Rover payload:



1.
Navigation terrain camera ( NaTecam ) 2C level scientific data

2. Mars Surface Composition Detector ( MarSCoDe ) Level 2B
Scientific data

3. Mars rover surface detection radar ( RoPER ) 2B level
Scientific data

4. Mars Meteorological Survey ( MCS ) 2C level scientific data




Relevant experts with data requirements should first go to the Engineering Center to apply for data. Users who have been approved log on to this website and select the "Science Data" in the "Mars" menu bar, and click on the "Data Acquisition within Protection Period" in the Tianwen No. 1 data catalog. After registering and logging in as required, fill in the registration form and upload the data application processing form approved by the Engineering Center, and then perform data acquisition according to the process.

Arhghg - unfortunately I can't seem to log in any more. The username and password I used for a lot of Yutu 2 data hasn't changed but it's now asking for a verification code and whatever I type is just rejects it.

Anyone had any luck getting in?

Update
Having google translate turned on was upsetting it - turning that off temporarily let me log in - but it would appear the data is available only for a limited group of people - they seem to call it a 'Protection Period' release.

Access requires further registration including a long 'ID Number' and other details.

Sol 82, the rover has moved 100 m south since the last report (thanks to Andrew Jones for noticing this first). Total distance 808 m, and there is a rear hazcam image with tracks here:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jhwCtqGZ47gm0nCzIzYxmw

There is not enough in the hazcam image for me to locate it yet.

Phil

Update, basically saying the rover has completed its 90 day mission, has returned 10 Gb of data, and will continue driving south. The rover and Tianwen-1 orbiter will be put into a safe mode during solar conjunction, and will continue their mission afterward. It sounds like Tianwen-1 will leave its current orbit at that point.



I've attached imagery presented in that post, but with a higher resolution found on Seger YU's twitter.

Sorry for the topic of color. But Perseverance has already started showing the pics without the red filter. Zhurong keep sending compressed blue and green channels. I think there is no need to force a perception that will not prevail when we got there. Mars resembles a Earth dry land, it doesn't looks like a red sand desert, but like a dry, or dead land, which is very nice, because it is a call for us to colonize it and a very hard remember that without care Earth will be (Exactly) a new Mars. Meanwhile, i will keep equalizing it,.. because they are just wonderfull pics, it's impossible to not be amazed about it.

Xinhua reports that Zhurong has traveled 1 km now.

On the sixth photo shown (a mixed white dune and reddish sand) do we know what Sol this was taken on?
My Chinese is a little rusty.
I can't quite match this view up with the HiRISE route maps.

--Bill

My Guess is Sol 66.

Your guess is likely correct. I wasn't looking back far enough. It does match nicely.

--Bill

New image release. https://twitter.com/CNSAWatcher/status/1432279954868350977


We have a panorama from the rover, as well as an image from Tianwen-1 from orbit showing the rover at that location. There's certainly a larger version of the panorama somewhere, but I have to go to work and lack the time to search for it.

See my note in the map thread - the track seen by the orbiter does not match the new map precisely but I will wait for HiRISE before trying to update my map. I will look for a larger panorama.

Phil

Well, you can't get a new panorama like that without giving it a bit of attention, can you? In order to remove the large variation in brightness with phase angle, I had to modify the color extensively so you can't regard it as realistic. Thanks to CNSA for the original data.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Full resolution panorama provided to me by someone who can get the CNSA site to load for them.
I had to convert it to .jpg, as the original .png file is about 37 Mb.

Edit: Nevermind for now. Pretty pitiful upload limit. I'll update this post when I can find a way around that.
Edit2: Google Drive link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S-LSL3xGpI...iew?usp=sharing

Please consider updating the upload limit at some point if that's at all possible. It's 2021, and 3 Mb doesn't go as far as it used to.

<admin mode>: Hey, Hungry. Thanks for posting a link to this imagery given the upload limit.

Speaking of the limit, we don't want to raise it because a- we do have a worldwide audience & not everybody has access to high-speed internet service & WiFi, and b- extremely large files can be problematic for mobile users anyhow. </admin>

Just amazed how the "Center China" path symbol is visible on this image.

And notice the wee sundial/gnomon on the deck!

Very Nice, we don't have a persistent magnetic filed, so we get a return to the time of the caravels... Wee sundial and i believe stars navigation at night.

Mars will quickly need a good GPS constelation...

And the Sundial extends the tradition from the early MER Marss rovers. I wonder if there is also an inscription on the gnomon face?

--Bill

I may be wrong,.. but isn't it a second Center China symbol ? Mabe we found a new Easter Egg... hidden on the shadows this time...

Added a quick guess on what it should looks like from a front view.. the mast cam view is from a perfect side view, proportions corrected... its's just so fun to follow Zhurong... ...

It only (rather vaguely) looks like a 中 because of the low sun angle. The object casting the shadow appears to be cylindrical. If it were an easter egg, they didn't put a lot of effort into making it apparent.

I have no.idea. The sundial looks like a sundial, but I can't explain that shadow. Pareidolia?

--Bill

Exactly!. First Shadow is from the base of the sundial and it's coloured marks, the second one i just can't understand it... a very nice pareidolia, geometrically perfect...

The sundial is T-shaped, with the camera being almost co-planar with the two sections. We can see the camera-facing face of the top cylinder (pointed out in red).

That was my initial conclusion, though I couldn't understand why the gnomon was T-shaped.
We can wait to see how the cast shadow behaves at higher Sun elevations, or we could build a mockup and experiment with it ourselves.

I recall playing games with the dust pools that formed and migrated around on the decks of Oppy and Spirit. I was intrigued by a ring of dust that formed on Oppy's Low Gain antenna and persisted for years. I never figured out why it formed there, and never found any pattern to it's behavior.

--Bill

A very interesting and welcome paper here:

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-836162/v1

It summarizes the first 60 sols on Mars for Zhurong.

Papers on Chang'e 5 are also starting to appear now.

Phil

That paper includes a table of activities by sol. The table starts with landing on sol 1, but previously it seemed that the landing sol was called sol 0. I can't remember now where the sol 0 landing date came from, but I will have to revise the sol count if this becomes the new standard.

Phil

https://twitter.com/SegerYu/status/1447033285859708931

Opportunity-style ambition, I like it! But how will they manage such a pace if the orbiter is leaving its data relay position?

They should still have one relay opportunity per day with their orbiter, plus I understand they have an agreement with ESA for some additional relays if needed.

Phil

Judging from the accuracy of the daily drives they have autonomous drives and/or the relay down pat.

I'm going to kick around the HiRISE site for a proper map to the Mud Volcano. Any other sources to look at?

--Bill

In the link I posted, there's an interview with a project scientist that points it out on a map. Even if you don't understand the language, it's pretty easy to follow.

This paper - https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-...df?c=1632507046 - would seem to infer there is not 'autonomy' to the driving - they are all manually commanded without things such as visual odometry or autonav etc. wrong - see below.

No, Doug - look at the legend on Figure 2a of that paper. Each drive after the first c. 25 sols has a directed drive phase followed by an autonomous drive phase. That corresponds to the entry in Extended Data Table 2 which says "Switching the rover locomotion mode to high efficiency mode" some time after sol 23.

Phil

Oh that's super subtle - I'm surprised they didn't actually mention it in the text anywhere. (I literally searched it for the word auto- but that text is baked into the illustration) This mission is so damned frustrating to try and follow.

Bill: "I'm going to kick around the HiRISE site for a proper map to the Mud Volcano. Any other sources to look at?"

You might try using this site to track down CTX images:

https://themis.asu.edu/maps

(there are other ways to get into CTX images but this has a nice map interface)

Phil

I'll give the Themis site a try.
At HiRISE, just searching on the keyword "zhurong" I did find image strips, and even image strips containing mud volanoes, but didn't see an obvious connection between strips. The topography is fairly a series of random features and it's going to take some time to pick through. I need to determine some Lat-Longs and use them as search parameters.
The presser also mentioned a "sand pile" they were keen to investigate. I found an area of different texture that might be it, but they may just be referring to one of the many light-toned barchan-like dunes we see.
A very ambitious and successful mission. The only limitation they will run into will be atmospheric Tau and dust accumulation on the solar panels.

--Bill

And I was largely guessing that autonav was being used, based on how the Rover picks around obstacles. They have gotten ideas on what is possible from the MER rovers, but they have brilliantly implemented the workable system.
The mission is tricky to follow. I don't think they are trying to be secretive, they are doing the mission for the mission's sake, but don't have a public outreach built into the infrastructure. It adds interesting dimensions to following the mission having to sleuth things up.

--Bill

This is my interpretation of the recent discussion about distant targets. I can't see what the sediment pile statement is about if it is not referring to the shallow trough about 3 km south of the landing site (2 km south of the current location). How is a trough a sediment pile? - maybe because its shallowness suggests it is largely filled with sediment. It has lots of discrete drifts (the bright lines in higher resolution images) on the valley floor, but it must also be largely filled with sediment if it was originally like the many other more prominent troughs around it. The ground-penetrating radar may reveal the structures forming the trough walls, which would be a significant observation.

Phil

Click to view attachment

A lot of time is spent pointing to this feature (see cursor in attached image), rather than the two large cones to the north-west. I suspect this is the intended target.

True, but they are about 25 km from the lander and the statement said 20 km to the cone.

Phil

https://share.api.weibo.cn/share/255422038.html
https://mobile.twitter.com/CNSAWatcher/stat...840619913678850
[Zhurong Mars Rover faces east during solar transit phase as a trick] Jia Yang, deputy chief designer in CASC, said due to the high temperature of Mars at noon, researchers let the rover face east, so that the rover's mast can block part of the sunshine.

I believe, in some point, we will need to have a relay satellite beetween Earth and Mars...

Phil, I agree that the trough must be the "sediment pile" they referred to. This may be another quirk in translation. Remember the confusion with their Farside Lunar Rover when it imaged a vitreous (glassy) patch and there was a big to-do about what they really found.

And the two "cinder cone" mud cones are likely a target. Not knowing Chinese I have no idea why they were pointing to that "mud cone" field in the photo.

We'll find out when we find out...

--Bill

I believe they think it will be easier and with more results to analyse a Mud pit area then a Mud single cone. I can't imagine Zhurong going up on a mud cone, but rovering through a cone fileld is other thing... And the concentration on that field may sugest interesting features underground...

It is tempting to go to a spectacular-looking mud volcano cone but given that Zhurong is equipped with Ground Penetrating Radar that field of mud cones would indeed be scientifically attractive. Perhaps the single cone would be a waypoint on the route to the field.
We will know more once we see the route beyond the Sand Pit.

--Bill

Appears to me that we have a collapsed wall on the Mud Field, more than one in really... Zhurong could drive inside them, i really can't distinguish beetween impact crater and Mud Pit...

Going a little further (mabe to much further), it apears to me to be not only a ancient lake.. but a ancient absorb region for the surrounding ocean.. that would explain the excess off Mud pit into it....

And not only that field of mud volcanos, but also outflow (drainage) areas to the north and south. And the weathered clays in the channels could possibly suggest the water quality of those mud volcanos.
In addition to having ground-penerating radar to examine the subsurface around the vents.

This makes sense. In the center of the Rover top you see a dark glassy area. This is not a solar cell array, but a solar heat collector. It contains a chemical compound that the heat of the sunlight melts and at night it recrystallizes and releases heat to the interior. Solar power at it's finest.
They have discovered that under Mars conditions the heat collector overheats, and they are positioning it so the mast blocks some insolation.

Well-known phenomenon. "Rochelle Salt" was used by early experimenters.

--Bill

Zhurong resumes operatiion... GoGoGo for the Mud pit site!....
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vI-pTDCKkSJfU_P2mZLjNw

New Image released, follows original and a interpretation.