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Original title: How to “rewrite textbooks” with Linux and Snapdragon 801 to Mars Perseverance? Source: Leifeng.com
The “Three Mars” launched by the United Arab Emirates, China and the United States in the 2020 window period continue their voyages of exploration in accordance with their plans. The latest news is that NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars and relayed it back. Multiple photos. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control center in Southern California announced that around 4:55 a.m. on February 19, 2021 Beijing time, Perseverance struck the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 19,312 kilometers. per hour.
About 7 minutes later, it landed on Mars with a “sky crane” and arrived at Jezero crater (Jezero crater) located on Mars at 18 degrees north latitude and 77 degrees west longitude.
On the same day, Perseverance also posted his first image: a black and white map of the surface of Mars.
NASA: Perseverance Will Rewrite Textbooks
At 7:50 p.m. on July 30, 2020 Beijing time, the launch site of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station No. 41, equipped with Perseverance’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle (Atlas V-541, also known as Universe God 5) was launched into space.
Before landing on Mars, Perseverance went through a 203-day journey, spanning 472 million kilometers.
After landing, engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been waiting for the next data transmission from the Mars rover.
Finally, in less than a day after Perseverance successfully landed on Mars, several spacecraft orbiting Mars sent data one by one. Knowing that everything was going according to plan, the team was relieved.
Regarding this important development, NASA Acting Director Steve Jurczyk said:
This landing on Mars is one of the key moments for NASA and even for global space exploration. We know that we are not far from great discoveries and we can say that we are rewriting textbooks.
This news has also attracted a lot of attention on the main social platforms.
Perseverance returns many images
But as the press release on the official NASA website said:
Even more exciting are the high-resolution images taken when the probe landed.
In fact, as early as November 2011, NASA launched the “Curiosity” Mars rover, the seventh Mars rover, the fourth Mars rover in the United States, and the world’s first nuclear-powered Mars rover. Your mission is to explore the elements of life on Mars.
On August 6, 2012, Curiosity successfully landed on the surface of Mars. At that time, the probe sent out a stop-motion animation of the descent process taken as it was about to land on the surface of Mars. This time, Perseverance served as Curiosity’s “successor.” It is equipped with a camera to capture video of its landing process.
At present, this video is still being sent back to earth and is being processed. The image below is a screenshot from a video posted by NASA.
It is understood that, unlike previous probes, most of the Perseverance cameras are in color, and NASA has obtained several color images through the cameras it carries.
The image below is of Hazcam at the bottom of Perseverance This is the first high resolution color image of Mars taken by Perseverance.
After landing, the two Hazcams at Perseverance’s front and rear ends also took photos. The following image shows that one of the probe’s wheels fell on the Martian soil.
In addition, NASA also announced the following close-up in black and white.
This image is from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). As shown in the following figure, MRO used a special high-resolution camera (HiRISE camera) to capture the descent of Perseverance attached to the parachute.
As a multipurpose Mars rover, the MRO was designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (its HiRISE camera was run by the University of Arizona). It was also launched on August 12, 2005 by the Space God-5 carrier rocket. One is to find suitable landing locations for the following Mars landing missions, while providing communications relay functions for these missions:
On March 10, 2006, MRO entered a large elliptical orbit of Mars;
In September 2006, MRO entered a nearly circular orbit of 250 km / 316 km;
On November 17, 2006, MRO and Spirit completed the orbital relay communication test;
In 2012, MRO used a high-resolution camera to photograph Curiosity’s landing process on Mars.
Not only that, NASA stated that it will launch the mast (the “head” of the rover) that was originally attached to the Perseverance platform.
NASA’s idea is that Navcams, a navigation camera used for the rover’s trips to Mars, and two science cameras (a zoomed Mastcam-Z and a laser instrument called the SuperCam) will “share” the space on the mast. Once the mast is raised, Navcams It is expected to take panoramic pictures of the deck and its surroundings.
“The most sophisticated robotic geologist”
One of Perseverance’s key goals is astrobiology, including searching for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars that formed 3.5 billion years ago. It will be the first mission to collect Martian rocks and eroded layers. NASA hopes to be able to describe it more precisely. through perseverance The geology and climate of Mars.
As mentioned above, Perseverance’s main exploration site is the western edge of Mars Isidis Planitia (north of the Martian equator), a place called Jezero Crater, which is a huge impact basin. Its width is about 45 kilometers. Previously, scientists had determined that there was a delta in this “great well” 3.5 billion years ago, filled with water.
In other words, to understand Mars, this is a good entry point.
Naturally, to achieve the end goal, scientific instruments are the key. According to NASA, Perseverance is “the most complex robotic geologist.”
Perseverance has 7 scientific instruments with a total weight of 59 kg (the Perseverance detector weighs 1,026 kg):
Mastcam-Z zoom panoramic camera: located on the mast, it can not only identify the rock composition, help the rover to travel, but also get high resolution 3D stereo panoramic images;
Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer MEDA: records and analyzes atmospheric temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, wind direction, size and shape of sand and dust on Mars;
MOXIE Oxygen Generator: Extracts oxygen from carbon dioxide, not only to prepare for future astronauts landing on Mars to absorb oxygen, but also as a source of fuel for the spacecraft to return to Earth, in order to carry out the “plan of oxygen production “from NASA;
PIXL X-ray Instrument: Use X-rays to analyze Martian sand grains more accurately;
RIMFAX Radar Imager for the Mars Underground Experiment: to detect the underground structure of Mars with centimeter resolution;
SHERLOC ultraviolet spectrometer: Use ultraviolet laser to analyze substances to achieve the purpose of scanning the habitable environment;
SuperCam Ultra-Distance Laser Analyzer – Remotely analyzes rock and soil composition.
In fact, not just the aforementioned instruments, but the Perseverance is equipped with a total of 23 cameras, most of which are color cameras.
In addition, Perseverance is also equipped with two microphones, which can not only record the sound of the Mars rover landing on Mars, but also capture the wind and grass on Mars. This is the first time that the US Mars rover has been equipped with such a design. Today, NASA has also announced a voice from Mars. You can “hear” the mystery of the red planet and the fear of the vast universe.
Linux comes to Mars
Perseverance’s computer control system is also worthy of note.
Its computer system complies with the aviation industry standard, including two identical modules supporting each other, namely RCE (Rover Compute Element), and adopts the BAE RAD750 radiation resistant central processing unit from IBM architecture. PowerPC 750. The CPU in Opportunity is ten times faster.
In fact, after perseverance is a small solar-powered unmanned helicopter “Ingenuity.”
The drone currently sits on the Perseverance’s abdomen and weighs 1.8 kilograms. It will track the estimated speed through a camera to achieve visual navigation; It is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a Qualcomm flight control panel, and a Linux flight control system.
Previously, Timothy Canham, a flight software engineer at JPL, told IEEE Spectrum:
The processor used by the Gwit helicopter is Qualcomm Snapdragon 801.
According to CSDN news, NASA has opened the Gizwit Linux system on GitHub (https://github.com/nasa/fprime).
In response, a mikko from Finnish security company F-Secure tweeted:
Mars becomes the second planet to have more Linux computers than Windows (Mars becomes the second planet to have more Linux computers than Windows).
It is understood that before Perseverance begins its two-year scientific investigation of the crater, it will first undergo several weeks of testing.
For the Giz UAV, engineers and scientists will continue to test its speed and every instrument, subsystem, and subroutine in the next month or two. After completing the various tests, the drone can proceed to the flight test stage; if successful, humans will have another dimension to explore Mars. In the future, the drone can be used as a reconnaissance aircraft and even provide astronauts in Mars Shipping Service.
Looking back at the history of human exploration of Mars, we can see that the “Three Mars” launched by the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States during the 2020 window period have taken a remarkable step.
NASA said on Twitter today:
The best is yet to come (the best is yet to come).
We will wait and see if Perseverance can rewrite the textbooks.
