Coming month on Mars, the ESA and China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) will try commodity that is noway been tried before in space Transferring data from a earth- grounded rover to an orbiter that it can not admit any dispatches from. Specifically, China’s selfie- taking Zhurong rover, which has been on the Red Planet since May, will try to shoot data over to the ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter.
As the ESA explains, Zhurong can not actually admit any dispatches from the Express Orbiter, due to a radio incompatibility. That means it can not hear the hail signal transferred from the orbiter, which is generally what a rover waits for before it starts transferring out data. Rather, coming month Mars and the ESA will essay a new system that is preliminarily only been tested on Earth. During five tests, Zhurong will shoot a signal blindly into space, and the Mars Express will hear for that signal and any implicit data Still, the radio will lock on to it and begin recording any data,”ESA’s Josh Tapley writes,”If (Mars Express) detects the magic signal.”At the end of the communication window, the spacecraft will turn to face Earth and relay these data across space the same way it does for other scientific Mars operations. When the data arrive at ESOC, they will be encouraged on to the Zhurong platoon for processing and analysis.”
It’s not unusual for rovers to shoot data to foreign orbiter — that is generally been seen as a smart backup system — but this test opens the door for communication between inharmonious systems. That’ll be useful if China has any issues with its Tianwen-1 orbiter down the line, or if the US and other countries need help in turn.
