The first anniversary of the landing of Perseverance on Mars, nuclear power, robotic arms and helicopters are all more advanced than Zhu Rong.

Yesterday, one year ago, on February 8, 20265438/kloc-0, the third-generation American rover "Perseverance" with a weight of 1 ton successfully landed in the impact crater of Yezero, and began a happy life as a "driller" without feelings. So far, it has drilled dozens of holes on Mars and collected a large number of samples for its next "flight" back to Earth.

The first is nuclear energy. I believe many people will find at first sight that their curiosity and perseverance are different from our Zhu Rong, and there are no sun wings. This is because they are driven by nuclear power, or from a professional point of view, they are called multi-task radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MMRTG), which are mainly used to insulate the inner core of spacecraft, and can also drive the rover, which can be regarded as nuclear power in a broad sense.

The mass of the MMRTG system of "Perseverance" is about 45 kg. Using 4.8 kg of plutonium dioxide as a stable heat source can generate about 1 10 watt of electricity, and it is expected that this level of power generation will last for more than ten years. "Curious" MMRTG system can provide about 125 watts of power output in the initial stage, and it is estimated that there will be 100 watts after 14. The nuclear power systems of the two systems are similar.

Compared with the solar panel of our "Zhu Rong" rover, the MMRTG system is not only more powerful, but also can avoid the problem of insufficient power supply at night or in winter. More importantly, due to the wind and sandstorm on Mars, the surface of solar panels will be covered with dust for a long time, which will reduce the photoelectric conversion efficiency. The second generation American rovers "Courage" and "Opportunity" have all encountered this problem, and there is almost no solution.

Interestingly, the American Mars workstation Insight recently encountered too much dust on solar panels. Its solution turned out to be "fighting poison with poison". I grabbed a shovel of Martian dust with a mechanical arm and sprinkled it on my sun wing to remove the dust on my body, just like an elephant taking a "sand bath", and I don't know what the final effect was. The solution of China's "Zhu Rong" rover is to shake it. Two of its four solar wings can be manually controlled to remove dust and restore photoelectric conversion efficiency when necessary.

In fact, we also have the MMRTG systems of Curiosity and Perseverance, which were successfully applied on the Chang 'e-3 lunar lander, and the core insulation means of Yutu-2 lunar rover also used isotope batteries. In addition, China will launch its own "Voyager I" and "Voyager II" in 2024 and 2025. They are called "Interstellar Express" IHP- 1 and IHP-2 detectors, which use radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) as power.

The second "black technology" of "Perseverance" is equipped with a mechanical arm with various end effectors such as hollow drills. Many years ago, when the "Perseverance" drilled a hole in the Martian rock, the drill turntable was stuck by two pebbles from Mars, and it took a month or two to finally take them out and restore their functions.

In fact, the mechanical arm is almost the standard of the American rover and the fixed Mars workstation. In addition to the early tiny sojourner, others have courage, opportunity, curiosity, perseverance, and even fixed Mars workstations such as Phoenix and Insight are equipped. But it's a pity that our "Zhu Rong" rover is not equipped with a mechanical arm. We can only "see, smell and ask" Martian rocks, but we can't "cut" them.

It is said that "Zhu Rong" did have a design with a mechanical arm, but in the end it chose the current scheme. The reason is that power supply is not a problem. The key point is that we didn't expect to take such a big step. For the first time, we independently explored Mars and successfully achieved "circling, landing and patrolling", which is already a huge leap. As for the mechanical arm, it is not difficult for us. It's on the Chang 'e V lander, but we can leave it to Zhu Rong II in a few years. It is said that the next time we explore Mars, we will sample and return to catch up with the American level.

The third "black technology" of Perseverance is its "Wit" Mars helicopter. Wit has flown no less than 12 times, the flight time is no less than 1309 seconds, and the flight distance is over 2.5 kilometers, which greatly improves the efficiency of Mars exploration and expands the detection range.

At present, China is also developing a Mars helicopter, which may land on Mars with Zhu Rong II. But judging from the current scheme, they are basically imitating the "wit" of Americans. However, the next-generation Mars helicopter in the United States is already in the design, with a 6-axis rotor design. Its size, flying distance and flying altitude are much higher than those of the current "Wit". The United States is also developing a nuclear-powered "Dragonfly" flight probe, which is scheduled to be sent to Titan, the hometown of Thanos, in 2026. When tracking foreign technology, we should also "look forward" and aim at the second generation of American Mars helicopters.

It is worth mentioning that Chang 'e VII, which will be launched next year, will carry a flying probe that looks like a king crab. It has six long legs and can crawl on the surface of the moon or fly at low altitude. Its main purpose is to find direct evidence that there is water in the south pole of the moon. This is also our alternative "wit". Of course, because there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon, this flight probe uses a reusable small thrust rocket engine instead of a rotor like Wit.

On the first anniversary of its successful landing on Mars, Perseverance has done a lot of important work. For example, in addition to tirelessly digging holes, it also successfully synthesized oxygen on Mars for the first time, laying a technical foundation for human migration to Mars in the future. Zhu Rong was our first wanderer. Although its technical level is still far behind that of Perseverance and Curiosity, it still has some advantages over the second-generation American rovers Spirit and Opportunity. At present, it is running safely in the southern part of the utopia plain of Mars.

Although the life span of Zhu Rong is the same as that of the American rover, which is calibrated as 90 Mars days, it has been running safely for more than 278 days, and it can run for more than ten years according to general rules, keeping pace with Zhu Rong II. The reason why the outside world has not heard from it for a long time is because it has been running for a long time, and both the media and the aerospace industry have a normal heart. Ordinary news from Mars can't be news, which is an improvement. After all, we are not Koreans, we have seen the world, and we don't need to launch rockets to wow.