Martian summer

Missile summer. From the mouth to the mouth with the wind from the house to the open house - two words: missile summer. Hot, like the breath of the desert, the air overdid frosty patterns on the windows, licked fragile lace. Skis and sleds suddenly did not need. The snow that fell on the town from the cold sky turned into hot rain, not reaching the ground.

Missile summer. Sticking with veranda under the fractional drops, people looked up at the red sky ...

Ray Bradbury. Missile summer (per. L. Zhdanov) [ 1 ]

July 2020 became a truly Martian month. Within 11 days, one after another, three space missions to the Red Planet started at once, which is associated with the opening of the astronomical window to Mars. Once every 26 months, the mutual position of two planets allows interplanetary stations to overcome the space between them along the so -called Goman trajectory, transitions between the orbits of the Earth and Mars, with an economical fuel consumption.

The first on July 19, the Hope's automatic interplanetary station, in Arabic Al-Amal [ 2 ], created in the space center of Mohammed Ibn Rashid in the United Arab Emirates, launched. A small orbital apparatus (weighing only 1.5 tons) and its scientific equipment were developed in cooperation with the American Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado (LASP).

Having completed its journey in February, Al-Amal will reach a high orbit around Mars, so that with the help of three scientific devices (infrared spectrometer, camera and ultraviolet spectrometer), collect data on the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. The device does not set the task of close photographing Mars, like most other orbital devices, and therefore, due to his high position (20 thousand × 43 thousand km), he will be able to first observe the full daily cycle of the planet. According to the plan, the first scientific data of the station will begin to send to Earth in May 2021.

The next July 23, from the Wenchan cosmodrome, the five-ton automatic interplanetary station “Tianveen-1” flew to Mars, which translates as “Questions to Heaven”-this is the name of the poem of the ancient Chinese poet Cyu Yuan, who lived in the 3rd century BC.

To remove the apparatus, the most powerful Changzhen-5 rocket (“Great campaign-5”) was used in China.

The space mission includes an orbital apparatus, a landing module and a small rover. If everything goes well, China will demonstrate a rare approach to Mars [ 3 ]. Most landing modules sit on the surface immediately from the flight path, which requires additional thermal protection. Chinese experts decided to repeat the scheme of American Viking stations in some ways. First, Tianveen-1 will slow down when approaching Mars and will go into orbit, and only then disconnect the landing module and “land” it to the surface in a given area. This approach will increase the safety and accuracy of landing, allowing to additionally analyze the data about the landing area from the orbit. The main and spare landing areas of the apparatus are located in the southern part of the utopia plain in the eastern part of the northern hemisphere of Mars. Landing ellipses have dimensions of 100 × 40 km.

China, in addition to the desire to become the second space power of the world after the United States, which managed to deliver a planet Red Planet and ensure its movement, planned a large scientific program.

Seven devices on the orbital module and six on the Markout will make a comprehensive study of Mars: mapping the planet, determining the distribution of water ice on the surface, studying the mineralogical composition of soil, study of climate and atmosphere.

The last July 30, from the SLC-41 launch site, Cape Kanveral on the Atlas V-541 missile, the American Automatic Interplanetary Station “Mars-2020” with the Perseeverans Rover (Perseverance-“Perseverance”) [ 4 ].

The composition of the payload of the rover includes seven scientific tools (cameras, spectrometers, georadar, weather station). The goal is to study the crater of Ezero, who once had a lake with the Delta of the Big River. This place on the western slope of Isis's plain is interesting for scientists from the point of view of areology and the search for traces of life on Mars.

And it is this area that was chosen for the most ambitious research mission of NASA in the next decade - the delivery of soil samples from the surface of Mars to Earth [ 5 ]. This task will take at least 11 years and 7 MRLD dollars in total, three separate spacecraft will be required to implement it.

At the first stage of this global mission, the Perseverans, moving along the route, will not only analyze the soil itself, but also take away the samples that interest the scientists, packing them in hermetic titanium tubes, and leave these samples for the next mission to Mars, which will take them and deliver them to the ground by 2031.

Another interesting feature of Rover-a small helicopter-drone “Ingenouty” (ingenuity ”) is attached to it. The goal of the drone is simple, but important: it should work out the flight technology in a sparse Martian atmosphere, whose density is approximately 100 times lower than on Earth. This is the first apparatus of this kind on another heavenly body.

As has already been adopted by NASA, to attract public attention, everyone could send their name to Mars, simply filling out the questionnaire on the site. Almost 11 million people participated in the action - their names were recorded on a memory card and are now on the Mars -Rage case. A drawing with the Sun and planets was also applied to the plate, where in the rays of our star the ABC Morse recorded the motto “Explore as One” - “We will explore”. But this is not all: the events of this year sad for all of humanity are also immortalized on a rover using a small memorable plate in honor of doctors fighting the pandemia of the new coronavirus [ 6 ].

Alexander Khokhlov, Cosmonautics Popularizer,
Member of the North-West Organization of the Cosmonautics Federation of the Russian Federation