Lunar rover program

1971July 3 1 day, American "Apollo 15" astronauts Davis -R- Scott and James -B- Owen built the first lunar rover.

2 1 century new lunar rover launched by NASA. In June 2008, NASA tested the latest lunar rover in the desert area of Moxi Lake, Washington.

Lunar rover is a special vehicle that travels on the surface of the moon, inspects the moon and collects and analyzes samples. In the laboratory, the scientific name of this important role is "remote control robot for lunar exploration", and the public has become accustomed to calling it "lunar rover". After the successful launch of the world's first artificial satellite, people began to prepare for flying to extraterrestrial bodies. However, in the process of exploring the surface of the moon, what means of transportation can be used for on-the-spot investigation on the surface of the moon? Thus, the lunar rover came into being. Scientists have analyzed and studied the valuable information brought back by the field trip of the lunar rover, which has greatly deepened human understanding of the moon.

The test site selected by NASA is very similar to the surface topography of the moon that will land in the future, so as to test samples such as lunar rover, remote-controlled robot and new spacesuit of lunar exploration astronauts, and simulate the functions of various facilities used by future astronauts in lunar activities. Aerospace engineering experts try to build a lunar base in the future with "man-machine cooperation" activities. Astronauts use robots and lunar rover to survey the location of the lunar base and lay solar panels and cables.

China's lunar rover

Harbin Institute of Technology once made a "six-wheeled rocker bogie" lunar rover, Shanghai Jiaotong University also made a dazzling "little spider pedestrian" lunar rover, and the lunar rover led by China Space Design and Research Institute. On March 15, 2005, Ouyang Ziyuan, the chief scientist of the lunar application science of "Chang 'e Project", disclosed to the media that the space department announced the technical parameters of the lunar rover used in the "Chang 'e Project" and the scientific research tasks to be completed, and the national public competition was held to select the best one. Previously, it was reported in the newspaper that at least seven universities and scientific research units were engaged in the development of lunar rover. They are Harbin Institute of Technology, Beihang University, Tsinghua, China University of Science and Technology, No.502 Research Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Group, Shanghai Jiaotong University and National University of Defense Technology. "Everyone has their own unique skills." The data held by the aerospace department is far beyond this scale. They have no less than 40 domestic lunar rover models on hand.

On June 24th, 2007, 10, "Chang 'e-1" will go straight into Guanghan Palace from Xichang Satellite Launch Base. China's lunar exploration project has entered the implementation stage. In 20 13, China's first soft landing device will land on the moon.

The lunar exploration project opened the door to deep space exploration in China. As a result, a series of deep space probes will gradually enter people's field of vision. The "lunar rover" is one of the starters.

According to the schedule of China's space program, in 20 13 and 12 years, Chang 'e III will send the lunar rover Yutu to the moon, complete the soft landing of the moon, and carry out unmanned lunar exploration, with the main task of detecting the surface and internal conditions of the moon.

At 20 13 12 am 1 30 am, Chang' e-3 satellite was launched from xichang satellite launch center on the Long March-3 B 23 carrier rocket, and Chang' e-3 will make a soft landing in the Hongwan area on the lunar surface on 13.

The lunar soft landing device slowly landed on the lunar surface through the buffer of the reverse rocket, the door opened and the inclined ladder automatically popped up. The lunar rover slowly unfolded its curled-up body, adjusted its posture, walked out of the hatch, slid down the gangway and began to walk on the moon. ...

Ouyang Ziyuan, an academician of the China Academy of Sciences and the chief scientist of China's lunar exploration project, who is known as the "father of Chang 'e", once described the future scene of China's lunar rover landing on the moon. It is reported that China will launch the first lunar lander-Chang 'e III in the second half of 20 13.

What attracts the attention of the outside world is that the launch of Chang 'e III will carry a "Zhonghua" lunar rover independently developed by China, which will achieve zero-distance contact with the moon for the first time. The full name of "Lunar Rover" is "Lunar Patrol Detector", which is a spacecraft integrating aerospace system engineering and intelligent robots, and can complete complex tasks such as lunar exploration, investigation, sample collection and analysis.

Chinese brands are ready to go.

China lunar rover is mainly developed by the Fifth Research Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology Group. Self-weight 1.20 kg, load of 20kg, life span of 3 months, continuous walking within 3 km of the moon 10km, and automatic obstacle avoidance function.

Ouyang Ziyuan pointed out that since there is no air on the surface of the moon, it is necessary to start the engine when the lunar rover descends, push it upward while descending, and slowly descend to a position 4 meters away from the moon to extinguish the engine. The instrument will land on the moon in free fall. At the same time, the China lunar rover will realize autonomous navigation, and can command the operation of instruments, and finally send the data back to Earth. There is also a lunar radar under the lunar rover, which will cut into the depth of 100 meters below the moon for detection.

According to experts, there are two solar instruments on the China lunar rover, one of which can rotate freely to find the position of the sun and absorb heat to generate electricity; The other can be covered on the car body to reduce heat dissipation. China lunar rover adopts a "six-wheel rocker" walking mechanism, and each wheel can adapt to different heights at the same time, so it is a "crawling master".

In addition, it also has a mechanical arm, which can detect and sample in lunar soil and moon rock for on-site detection. Meanwhile, China lunar rover uses solar energy and nuclear energy as energy sources. Because the interval between day and night of the moon is about 14 days on the earth, when night falls, in order to prevent the vehicle-mounted instruments from being damaged by the low temperature of-100 degrees Celsius, the lunar rover must use the energy of the nuclear battery to keep warm and keep communication with the ground. When a new day comes, the battery can rely on solar energy again.

Do as Romans do in Rome.

The moon is a celestial body with no wind, no rain, no water and no air, and its hot and cold changes dramatically, which is completely different from the earth's environment. Therefore, China lunar rover must be fully prepared to adapt to the environment if it wants to successfully complete its mission.

For example, the temperature difference between day and night of the moon is large, and the temperature is as high as 130- 150 degrees Celsius during the day, and it can be reduced to-160- 180 degrees Celsius at night. How to work normally for a long time under extreme temperature conditions is a difficult problem. There is no atmospheric protection on the surface of the moon, and high-energy particles such as solar wind and solar flare directly radiate to the surface of the moon, which will damage some highly integrated microelectronic devices of the lunar rover. The acceleration of gravity on the lunar surface is only 1/6 of that on the earth's surface, so it will be a great test whether the lunar rover can complete the action on the lunar surface in low gravity. The lunar soil on the lunar surface is also an important factor affecting the driving performance of the lunar rover.

It is understood that the entire surface of the moon is covered with a loose layer, which is composed of rock fragments, breccia, sand and dust, and is called lunar soil. Because the lunar soil is soft, it is easy for the lunar rover to slip when driving on it.

In addition, when the lunar rover walks, it will also raise a large number of fine particles of lunar soil, forming lunar dust, which is difficult to remove once attached. At the same time, lunar dust may also cause many faults, including mechanical structure stuck, sealing mechanism failure, optical system sensitivity decline and so on.

Professor Gao Feng of Beihang University participated in the preliminary demonstration and ground verification test of lunar rover. Our reporter learned that for the China lunar rover, "waking up overnight" is a difficult problem, which not only has to withstand the battery test, but more importantly, it has to withstand the low temperature test of-160- 180 degrees Celsius.

Ye Shuhua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also believes that it is no less difficult to survive on the moon than to land on it, because the temperature of the moon at night is low and the time is long, which can be described as "it is difficult to sleep at night".

Landing on the moon slowly and steadily

/KOOC-0/970/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/7/KOOC-0/0/7, the Soviet "Moon/KOOC-0/7" probe landed on the moon, releasing the first real lunar rover. Subsequently, the American "Apollo 15" spacecraft sent the first manned lunar rover to the surface of the moon. During the period of 1959- 1976, the Soviet Union and the United States successfully launched 25 and 24 unmanned lunar probes respectively, and human exploration of the moon also reached its first climax.

1On July 20th, 986, after experiencing the low tide of 10, the United States announced its return to the moon, and the Soviet Union, Europe and Japan all organized forces to conduct research and put forward development plans in succession. 1998 65438+1On October 6th, with the successful launch of the American lunar probe, space exploration activities set off a new wave.

To sum up, human exploration of the moon can be divided into three steps, namely, "exploration, landing and landing on the moon". As of 20 13, China is in the first stage, that is, taking "exploration" as the main direction and steadily advancing in three small steps of "lunar exploration, lunar exploration and sampling return".

It is reported that China is conducting the demonstration of the pre-manned moon landing scheme, and some experts suggest that China should carry out manned moon landing in 2025 or 2030. Jia Yang, director of the Deep Space Exploration Office of China Academy of Space Technology, pointed out that the technology used in China's "three-step strategy" for lunar exploration can also be used in related fields of manned landing on the moon in the future.

Link: package, discard and return 3 tasks.

China's lunar exploration project is divided into three tasks: circling the moon, landing and returning. It is estimated that China will launch Chang 'e III and land on the moon in the second half of 20 13. "orbit", that is, to carry out satellite orbit control experiments and lunar surface exploration; "Landing" refers to landing the lunar probe on the surface of the moon and conducting a field trip to the moon; The last step of "returning" is to bring the physical samples collected on the moon back to earth after completing the field trip to the moon.

"Chang 'e-1" and "Chang 'e-2" satellites have successively completed their flights around the moon, marking the completion of the first phase of China's lunar exploration project.

The Chang 'e III, launched in the second half of 20 13, will realize the unmanned automatic patrol of the surface of extraterrestrial celestial bodies for the first time, realize the moonlit survival for the first time, establish TT&C communication network covering the exploration range of Mars for the first time, and independently carry out scientific exploration of the lunar surface for the first time.

The completion of this mission will lay a solid foundation for China's deep space exploration.