China’s space program tested its Mars lander last week, simulating the conditions faced by craft landing on the Red Planet. Meanwhile, news has emerged that China listened in on the US’ Juno probe, orbiting Jupiter, to test its own deep space communications abilities.
On November 14, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) carried out tests on its Mars lander using a 460-foot-tall tower that recreates the weaker gravity the lander will have to navigate as it descends to Mars, Xinhua News Agency reported.
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) posted images of the lander on social media last month, Sputnik reported. The mission is slated to launch in 2020 and arrive on Mars in 2021, and will encompass not only orbiting Mars, but landing on it and deploying a rover as well. Previous missions by the US and other countries have only attempted one of these steps at a time.
The orbiter and rover both carry instruments for communication and measurement, including high-resolution cameras, spectrometers and tools for measuring the Red Planet’s magnetosphere, among other things, Spaceflight Now reported. The rover is designed for a three-month mission once it rolls off the lander.
Eavesdropping on Juno
A recently unearthed report has revealed that China used signals sent by the Juno probe orbiting Jupiter, operated by the US space agency NASA, in order to sharpen its deep space communications skills in preparation for its own future missions.
According to a Chinese academic paper published in 2018 in the Journal of Deep Space Exploration and recently uncovered by SpaceNews, scientists were able to detect Juno’s signals in the 35-meter-diameter dish at Kashi station in Xinjiang, correctly determining at what altitude the space probe was orbiting the solar system’s biggest planet.
As the outlet explained, the Juno probe uses X-band and Ka-band radio waves to communicate with NASA scientists back on Earth, and the wavelength of the transmissions helps them to measure Jupiter’s gravitational field more accurately than ever before. That’s what the Chinese scientists looked at, too: they were able to identify the orbital path Juno followed by detecting the subtle shifts in its signals.
However, the eavesdropping wasn’t nefarious and didn’t cause any problems, an expert told SpaceNews.
David C. Agle, a spokesperson for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that NASA regularly provides the public with access to data from programs like Juno, so as long as the Chinese don’t try to control the space probe or interfere with its functioning, this was a harmless action.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
