China's 'Zhurong' Rover Takes a Selfie on Mars (bbc.com) 28
The BBC reports: China's Zhurong rover has sent back a batch of new images from Mars — including a "selfie". The robot, which landed in May, positioned a wireless camera on the ground and then rolled back a short distance to take the snap. To Zhurong's right is the rocket-powered platform that brought the six-wheeled vehicle to a soft touchdown. Both display prominent Chinese flags...
It weighs some 240kg. A tall mast carries cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments will investigate the mineralogy of local rocks and the general nature of the environment, including the weather. Like the current American rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance), Zhurong has a laser tool to zap rocks to assess their chemistry. It also has a radar to look for sub-surface water-ice - a capability it shares with Perseverance.
Slashdot reader InfiniteZero writes that the mission's "full resolution images including a 360 panoramic view of the landing site, can be found at the official CNSA website."
It weighs some 240kg. A tall mast carries cameras to take pictures and aid navigation; five additional instruments will investigate the mineralogy of local rocks and the general nature of the environment, including the weather. Like the current American rovers (Curiosity and Perseverance), Zhurong has a laser tool to zap rocks to assess their chemistry. It also has a radar to look for sub-surface water-ice - a capability it shares with Perseverance.
Slashdot reader InfiniteZero writes that the mission's "full resolution images including a 360 panoramic view of the landing site, can be found at the official CNSA website."
Re:Always copying something... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
And everyone copied from the Chinese [nasa.gov], which is kind of ironic.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
To be honest, our space program copied from Germany...
Partly. Do keep in mind, though, that the German rocket team copied from Goddard.
(And also that there was a robust rocket program in the U.S. during the war as well: not just Goddard's continuing work during the war, but notably the GALCIT program (later renamed "JPL", with its spin-off Aerojet), that developed a number of different rocket engines.)
Re: (Score:2)
Goddard's rockets were hobby experiments. The 3rd Reich spent vast resources and trials perfecting the V2 to make them practical space-faring machines.
Re: (Score:1)
Addendum: Granted, Goddard did discover and invent many useful rocketry concepts in their rudimentary form.
Goddard [Re:Always copying something...] (Score:3)
Goddard's rockets were hobby experiments.
That doesn't mean that they weren't copied.
(Also, Goddard's early rockets were experiments, but starting in 1930, he was funded by the Guggenheims, and as the war started he had Navy funding.)
The 3rd Reich spent vast resources and trials perfecting the V2 to make them practical space-faring machines.
The V2 was not in any way "a practical space-faring machine".
Addendum: Granted, Goddard did discover and invent many useful rocketry concepts in their rudimentary form.
The image of Goddard's first liquid fuel rocket is so ubiquitous that people tend to forget that that was the first, not the last, of his rockets, and they were not all "rudimentary". This one, for example, looks a lot like a V2. From 1932. https://www.fli [flickr.com]
Re:Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
More than that, almost everyone except the Russians and Americans have really had the benefit of developing their space programs with assistance from other's with more experience. If I understand correctly, China was effectively blacklisted and aren't allowed to even have astronauts on the international space station. Which basically makes it the Western space station + Russia because we really wanted to act like we were being nice to everyone -- but that doesn't quite sound as nice.
What China is achieving
Re: (Score:3)
Yep, the landing system (which worked first time) was entirely Chinese developed as the only other country which has had any success with it is the US, and NASA is banned from working with the Chinese.
It will be interesting to see if the sub-surface instruments work. So far every other attempt has largely failed to make a decent bore hole, it seems to be a very challenging task.
Re: Meh. (Score:2)
Jia you China.
As a teacher here, I try to always get my students excited about the space program. The article I read outlined objectives for reusable rockets and satellite internet which clearly seems to follow from SpaceX work. I know Tesla has factories here, so I wonder to what degree Tesla may play in these developments and how the US government would respond to Chinese SpaceX business. If they achieve these feats in complete isolation in the next decade, we are talking a level of competition that could
Re: (Score:2)
At least if the sources are still few. Because this isn't something like "Chinese Scientists Confirm Water is Wet" kind of 'replication'.
Just because we don't like China right now for a lot of valid reasons, does not mean that we should dismiss absolutely everything their science programs come up with.
weight? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It has 240kg mass. Mars weight is only about 80kg.
If you are going to be excruciatingly correct, go all the way. It has a mass of 240, and a Mars weight of about 800 Newtons.
Re: (Score:2)
The problem with both China and the Soviet Union is that they are/were large countries based on a totalitarian gov't, typically known as a "dictatorship". The economic system itself is not the problem. Dictators can do whatever the hell they want to the their people, who have few if any practical recourse.
The image quality is far better than NASA (Score:3)
impossible to contribute to nasa (Score:1)
Welcome to Fascist Mars (Score:2)
I guess it sort of makes sense, really.