The existence of Star Navigator has indeed broken the preconceived notions of many people.

No way, this company has risen too fast.

The iterative upgrade of technology is even more outrageous.

If it weren't for the fact that some of the Navigator's technologies are more advanced than the Tianxia Aerospace National Team, others would think that it would be the private vest of the national team.

Even so, the 32-ton Mars exploration equipment that Star Navigator came up with really scared everyone.

Before Tianxia's first autonomous Mars exploration equipment "Tianwen-1" weighed more than 5 tons, it set a new weight record for planetary exploration equipment, and the unmanned exploration spacecraft came out even more completely, forcing the international aerospace field to directly upgrade it to a level and put it into the category of "spacecraft", otherwise other people's probes would not have to play.

And now, with the opening of the cargo compartment of the "Trailper" landing module, a real Mars exploration helicopter and a larger Mars rover have arrived.

This is the "probe" on the unmanned exploration spacecraft, the cargo doors on both sides are open, and the robotic arms on the top put down the helicopter and the rover respectively.

There is nothing to say about the rover, it is still the appearance of a traditional Mars unmanned rover, and there is no pressurized space.

Compared with the previous Mars unmanned rover, the "Land Pioneer" rover of the Star Navigator is larger and carries more experimental equipment on it, which is really comparable to a mobile laboratory.

Because there is no pressurized space, astronauts cannot be allowed to drive like in a science fiction movie.

However, because it is large enough, astronauts can still use it in sitting, standing, hanging and other positions.

It even comes with a separate remote control system that replaces the slow autopilot mode with the astronaut's piloting skills.

If nothing else, it can be used normally for a long time, so some of its designs take care of future use.

After all, such a big block, it is too cost-effective to make a pure unmanned vehicle at this kind of time node, and this kind of unmanned vehicle for extraterrestrial surface exploration is a well-known "snail crawling".

And the "Sky Trailblazer" that was put down on the other side is the highlight.

This helicopter is not a traditional helicopter shape, but more like a large drone, which is more symmetrical.

Because as far as the installation of scientific research equipment is concerned, the long "tail" of the helicopter is useless at all.

Strictly speaking, it is not the first unmanned helicopter on Mars, the first unmanned helicopter is Merrican's "Ingenuity", although it is only 1.8 kilograms.

Don't look at the small people, but it has a very big ambition.

"The Wright brothers showed that heavier-than-air airplanes can fly in the Earth's atmosphere, and we're going to show that airplanes can fly in the Martian atmosphere just as well."

Of course, Mars, which does not even have a runway, will not experiment with fixed-wing aircraft, starting with rotary-wing helicopters.

But getting a gyroplane to fly on Mars is not an easy task.

Ingenuity is a small helicopter, with a propeller diameter of 1.2 meters, a height of 0.8 meters, and a rotor diameter that exceeds the length of the fuselage instrument compartment.

The overall structure consists of a coaxial inverted propeller, 4 bracket landing supports, a 14 cm cube instrument compartment with a solar panel on top, providing 350 watts of power and a total mass of 1.8 kg.

Its coaxial propeller speed is close to 3,000 revolutions per minute, which is comparable to the propeller speed of fixed-wing propeller aircraft, while the rotor speed of the average helicopter on Earth is only a few hundred revolutions per minute.

It has a maximum flight range of 300 meters, a radio-controlled range of 1 km, a maximum flight altitude of only 5 meters, a maximum horizontal flight speed of 10 meters per second and a vertical speed of 3 meters per second.

Judging from this data, it is not even up to the standard of a drone, but it has to fly on the surface of Mars, and the data we see is only a façade. 120

The surface of Mars is in the temperature range of minus 90 degrees Celsius, and in some areas it is even colder, with an atmospheric pressure of only 1% of Earth's, which is a disaster for aircraft.

The principle of aircraft take-off is to rely on the pressure difference between the upper and lower surfaces of the wings to obtain lift, and the density of the Martian atmosphere is extremely low, indicating that its flight environment is very harsh.

At the same time, the gravitational pull of Mars is only one-third of that of Earth, which puts forward higher requirements for landing and hovering.

Therefore, the flight environment of the "Ingenuity" unmanned helicopter on the surface of Mars at 5 meters is equivalent to the atmosphere at an altitude of 30,000 meters on the earth.

Not to mention helicopters at this altitude, even ordinary fighter jets can't fly at this altitude, and the maximum ceiling of the legendary Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft is about 30,000 meters.

Take the Black Hawk helicopter as an example, its ceiling is 5,700 meters, the "Llama" helicopter has set a record of 12,442 meters in the plains, and the Tianxia plateau helicopter has flown over Mount Everest at an altitude of 9,000 meters.

But flying at such extreme altitudes, even the control is very reluctant, let alone performing certain tasks precisely.

If you think about it, the "Ingenuity" helicopter can theoretically fly at an altitude of 30,000 meters above earth.

Of course, that's just theory, as it lasts only 90 seconds from takeoff to landing each time.

The "Sky Trailr" is basically the ultimate enlarged version of the "Ingenuity", which has expanded from 1.8 kilograms to more than 5,000 kilograms, that is, more than 5 tons.

Calculated with the data of the "Ingenuity", one can imagine how big it is.

There is a lot of equipment on top of it, and the core thing is still a power generation device, without electricity, it can't fly.

And its current state on Mars can be regarded as "isolated", so if you want it to work for a long time, you must ensure that its power is continuous, and even if it can't be done, it can't be a one-time thing.

The result is an integrated power supply and storage system of isotope decay thermal cells, solar panels and storage batteries that cover the fuselage, but this is not the core technology, the core technology is a complex power conversion device that can be used on Mars.

Because neither isotope decay thermal cells nor solar panels are of high power, in order for an isolated helicopter to work for a long time, then the helicopter must have an "inexhaustible" source of energy, which is exactly the right two.

However, their power is not high, so advanced power conversion devices are required.

With this thing, it can fly for two hours at a time, fly a distance of hundreds of kilometers at once, then land for half an hour, and then continue flying.

It's just that the atmosphere of Mars is too thin, so it doesn't fly high, and the practical ceiling is only 100 meters, which is almost enough to ensure that it flies straight over many terrains.

In this process, all kinds of equipment can be operated continuously, and their electricity can be guaranteed.

Fortunately, Kanxing is already thinking about the miniaturization of the nuclear fusion device, and in a few days, or months, Oh, I am talking about the time on the earth's side, and it will probably be available.

Now this, let's make do with it.

So in the envious and shocked eyes of billions of earthlings, this improvised-use "giant" unmanned helicopter turned its six big wheels and walked forward.

Yes, the bottom of the Sky Trailblazer is wheels, not landing stands, after all, it is very close to the landing gear when it is lowered by the robotic arm, and it is not easy to take off in that situation.

And when it flies over certain targets and doesn't or can't land exactly in the right place when it lands, these wheels are needed to get it in the right place.

So when it moves to the right position, the huge propeller starts turning.

From the slow rotation at the beginning, to the rapid rotation sound of "whining" is heard later, and then the rapid rotation sound of "buzzing" at the end.

This scene is shown on the screens of billions of people on the earth through the landing module camera next to it, crossing hundreds of millions of kilometers of starry sky distance.

The audience watching the live broadcast can clearly see that in the red sand and dust flying, the huge rotor drove the "Sky Trailr" to fly on the surface of Mars!