Lunar Odyssey Guide: Take the "Ladder" First and Then "Drive"

Yesterday was the sixth China Space Day, and the China National Space Administration officially announced that China's first Mars rover was named "Zhu Rong", and the full name was "Zhu Rong". It is expected that in mid-May 2021, the lander part of China's first Mars exploration mission, tianwen-1 probe, and the Zhurong rover will soon land on Mars to implement landing and patrol exploration on the surface of Mars.

From ancient times to the present, human curiosity and exploration of the universe have never stopped. Riding the ladder to the moon and driving a cool lunar rover to explore the scene, which exists in a large number of science fiction novels and movies, will now gradually come to life with the efforts of scientists in our country. In 2016, with the funding of the China Manned Spaceflight Engineering Advance Research Project, the "Multi-stage Multi-functional Lunar Ladder Concept Research" and "Multifunctional Manned Lunar Rover" project organized by the Joint Research Center for Deep Space Exploration of the Ministry of Education and cooperated by Chongqing University and other universities carried out relevant research, providing new possibilities for "roaming" the moon. On the sixth "China Space Day", let's take a ride on the lunar ladder and drive a lunar rover to take a lunar "roaming" trip.

Lunar Ladder: The "Silk Road" in the Sky

The average distance from the Moon to Earth is about 384,000 kilometers, and it is the closest celestial body to Earth and the only natural satellite on Earth.

"Establishing outposts on the lunar surface, carrying out long-term scientific exploration, lunar resource extraction and energy utilization is the first step for mankind to move towards Mars and deep space." Shao Yimin, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering of Chongqing University, said that the establishment of a fast and low-cost long-term transportation channel between the earth and the moon is the key to achieving this goal.

At present, the carrier between the Earth and the Moon mainly relies on rockets and spacecraft, but the two tools have a short operating life cycle, high launch cost, low reuse rate, and a large waste of space, with only 6% of the space can carry people. In order to solve these problems, the "multi-stage multi-functional lunar ladder concept" came into being.

The lunar ladder is mainly composed of a sea-based/lunar surface platform, a ladder rope, a climber, a space capsule, a balance hammer, and a synchronous orbital space station. The entire lunar ladder system can be divided into three subsystems, including: near-Earth ladder system, space ladder system, and near-moon ladder system.

The lunar odyssey begins with a near-Earth ladder, starting from a maritime base built on the surface of the Earth's sea, and a manned space capsule that can carry cargo along a ladder rope made of carbon nanotube materials to the Earth's space station. It is then launched from here and flown to the lunar space station through the capsule's own power system. When the capsule docks with the lunar space station, it will once again follow the ladder rope and take the near moon ladder to the lunar surface.

"The ladder system is a low-cost normalized means of rapid access to space, the cost of traditional rockets and spacecraft to transport materials is about 5,000 US dollars / kg, while the carrying cost of a single ladder is only 200 US dollars / kg, about 4% of the traditional mode of delivery." Shao Yimin said that the lunar ladder with high efficiency, large load, reusable and other characteristics is like building a heavenly "Silk Road" in space.

Lunar rover: "Chinese wind" blowing on the moon

After reaching the moon, to continue the "roaming" journey, means of transportation are essential. The lunar surface is rugged, astronauts wearing bulky spacesuits themselves are immobile, and most scientific research work requires carrying shovels, pickaxes and other tools to collect samples from different locations and bring them back to the lunar module. At this time, if there is a car to travel, it will greatly facilitate the exploration of the moon.

Duan Shengfeng, vice president of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, is responsible for the concept design of the lunar rover, the design of the variable wheel hub, the design of the body shape and the cultural concept design. Duan Shengfeng said that the lunar rover solution that builds the "Chinese way" is derived from the myth and legend of "Chang'e Running Moon" and the flying streamer, which is in line with the "Heavenly Silk Road". On this basis, Chongqing University proposed a multi-functional manned lunar rover, adding the concept of memory symmetrical folding body and intelligent perception of amplitude, and developed an independent innovation manned lunar rover suitable for the lunar environment.

This is the world's first lunar rover to incorporate "Chinese style", can carry 2 astronauts, and can reach a top speed of 25 kilometers per hour. A single unit can meet the functions of moon and day detection, moon and night data processing and transmission, and has the ability to reconstruct with other devices.

Shao Yimin introduced that the multi-functional manned lunar rover is lightweight and flexible, has terrain matching capabilities, is suitable for complex terrain such as slopes and ravines on the lunar surface, and can meet the performance requirements of good power, passability, comfort and high stability.

At the same time, the lunar rover also proposed two navigation schemes based on beacons and constellation navigation based on Lagrange points, even if the "road fool" did not have to worry about getting lost on the moon.

Moonwalk: Bringing Science Fiction Closer to Reality

At present, the two projects of lunar ladder and lunar rover are still under development, and under the "blessing" of technology, projects such as space resource development and reconstruction, space tourism and sightseeing will gradually be opened to the public. The moon will also become within reach, and experiencing a true lunar "rover" is believed to become a reality in the near future.

Shao Yimin said that once the lunar ladder is realized, there will be a stable cargo manned transmission system between the earth and the moon, which will have great significance in promoting lunar scientific expeditions, space tourism, space breeding, etc., and at the same time, it can also be added to clean up space garbage with clean hands, and it is more convenient to put satellites, "which will open up a new world for mankind."

In ancient times, there was Chang'e Running Moon, and now there is the "Chang'e Project". Today, with the continuous breakthrough of China's space exploration technology, the power of the sky has converged into a surging force to boost national rejuvenation, and Chinese scientists are bringing a new and pioneering lunar odysnutical journey to reality.

Xinhua