Yinghuo-1 () was a Chinese
Mars-exploration space probe
A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or ent ...
, intended to be the first Chinese planetary space probe and the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n
Fobos-Grunt
Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mis ...
sample return
A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as lo ...
spacecraft, which was intended to visit Mars' moon
Phobos.
[ The 115-kg (250-lb) Yinghuo-1 probe was intended by the ]CNSA
China National Space Administration (CNSA; ) is the government agency of the People's Republic of China that is responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation, including organizing or leading foreign exchanges ...
to orbit Mars for about two years, studying the planet's surface, atmosphere, ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...
and magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
. Shortly after launch, Fobos-Grunt was expected to perform two burns to depart Earth orbit bound for Mars. However, these burns did not take place, leaving both probes stranded in orbit. On 17 November 2011, CNSA reported that Yinghuo-1 had been declared lost.["Yinghuo Was Worth It"]
Space Daily, Morris Jones, 17 November 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2011. After a period of orbital decay
Orbital decay is a gradual decrease of the distance between two orbiting bodies at their closest approach (the periapsis) over many orbital periods. These orbiting bodies can be a planet and its satellite, a star and any object orbiting it, or ...
, Yinghuo-1 and Fobos-Grunt underwent destructive re-entry on 15 January 2012, finally disintegrating over the Pacific Ocean.["Phobos-Grunt: Failed Russian Mars Probe Falls to Earth"]
ABC News, 15 January 2012.["Phobos-Grunt: Failed probe likely to return late Sunday"]
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, 15 January 2012.
As a result, CNSA subsequently moved to embark on an independent Mars exploration program, which culminated in the Tianwen-1
-1 (TW-1; zh, t=, s=, l='Heavenly Questions') is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) which sent a robotic spacecraft to Mars, consisting of 6 spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, remo ...
orbiter-lander-rover mission that successfully landed the Zhurong
Zhurong (), also known as Chongli (), is an important personage in Chinese mythology and Chinese folk religion. According to the '' Huainanzi'' and the philosophical texts of Mozi and his followers, Zhurong is a god of fire and of the south.
Th ...
rover on Mars on 22 May, 2021.
Name
Yinghuo-1's name ( – '' firefly'', literally "luminous fire") was a tribute to the near-homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
''yinghuo'' (). This word, a short form of "shimmering planet" (熒惑星), is an ancient Chinese name for Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
.
Background
On 26 March 2007, the director of the China National Space Administration
China National Space Administration (CNSA; ) is the government agency of the People's Republic of China that is responsible for civil space administration and international space cooperation, including organizing or leading foreign exchanges ...
, Sun Laiyan
Sun Laiyan (; born October 1957) is a Chinese scientist who served as the Administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) from 2004 to 2010, when he was succeeded by Chen Qiufa.
Early life
Sun was born in Beijing in October 19 ...
, and the head of the Russian Space Agency
The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...
, Anatoly Perminov
Anatoly Nikolayevich Perminov (russian: Анатолий Николаевич Перминов; born 16 June 1945) is a Russian rocket scientist and a mechanical engineer. He served as the General Director of Russian Federal Space Agency in 2004 ...
, signed a landmark space co-operation accord, entitled the "Cooperative Agreement between the China National Space Administration and the Russian Space Agency on joint Chinese-Russian exploration of Mars". One stipulation of the agreement was the construction and launch of the Yinghuo Mars orbiter and its Russian counterpart, Fobos-Grunt.
Instruments and objectives
Yinghuo-1's primary scientific objectives were:
# To conduct detailed investigation of the plasma environment and magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
around Mars.
# To study Martian ion escape processes and their possible mechanisms
# To conduct ionosphere occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
measurements between Yinghuo-1 and Fobos-Grunt, focusing on the sub-solar and midnight regions.
# To observe sandstorms
A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transporte ...
on the Martian surface.
The probe's science payload consisted of four instrument:
# A plasma package, consisting of an electron analyzer An electrostatic analyzer or ESA is an instrument used in ion optics that employs an electric field to allow the passage of only those ions or electrons that have a given specific energy. It usually also focuses these particles (concentrates them) ...
, ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
analyzer and mass spectrometer
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is us ...
.
# A fluxgate magnetometer
A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...
.
# A radio-occultation sounder.
# An optical imaging system consisting of two cameras with resolution for high-quality images of the Martian surface to be captured from orbit.
Mission profile
Following its transit to Mars, Yinghuo-1 was planned to separate from Fobos-Grunt in October 2012 and enter a 72.8-hour equatorial Martian orbit, with an orbital inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Earth ...
of approximately 5 degrees. Fobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 would have conducted Mars ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...
occultation
An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
experiments together, although Fobos-Grunt's primary objective was to obtain surface samples from the Martian moon Phobos. Yinghuo-1 would have experienced periods of up to 8.8 hours in darkness when its orbit carried it over Mars' nightside; it would have run on battery power during these periods, as its solar panels would have been unusable without direct sunlight.
Launch processing
On 17 October 2011, the completed Yinghuo-1 satellite arrived at Baikonur Cosmodrome with Fobos-Grunt, beginning payload processing operations in preparation for its November launch.
Launch and orbital burn failure
China's Yinghuo-1 and the Russian Fobos-Grunt spacecraft were launched together aboard a Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
Zenit rocket
Zenit ( uk, Зеніт, russian: Зени́т; meaning ''Zenith'') is a family of space launch vehicles designed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro, Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Zenit was originally built in the 1980s ...
with a Fregat
Fregat (russian: Фрегат, ''frigate'') is an upper stage developed by NPO Lavochkin in the 1990s, which is used in some Soyuz and Zenit launch vehicles, but is universal and can be used as a part of a medium and heavy class launch vehic ...
upper stage from Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011. Shortly after launch, Fobos-Grunt was expected to perform two burns to depart Earth orbit and begin its journey to Mars. However, these burns did not take place, stranding the two spacecraft in their parking orbit. Despite repeated efforts to contact the launcher and rectify the problem, the spacecraft continued to lose altitude."Russia Running Out of Time, As Mars Mission Seems Destined To Fail"
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, 11 November 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011. On 17 November, Chinese state media formally declared the Yinghuo-1 probe lost,[ and the launcher's orbit gradually began to decay.
]
Destructive re-entry
On 14 January 2012, it was reported that Fobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 were beginning their final descent into Earth's atmosphere, falling at a rate of several hundred metres per hour from their orbital altitude.[ The two spacecraft completed their re-entry and disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean on 15 January 2012.][
]
Specifications
*Length: (excluding solar panels).["China to launch first Mars probe in 2009"]
. Xinhua, 22 May 2007. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
*Width: .[
*Height: .][
*Mass: .][
*Power: 3-axis stabilised, 2×3 section ]solar array
A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and ...
with a full-extended length of , providing average power of 90 W, and peak power of 180 W.[
* HGA: 950 mm antenna dish ( S-band) with a 12 W transmitter in two frequencies (8.4 and 7.17 GHz) and a data rate between 8 bit/s and 16 kbit/s.][
* LGA: 80 bit/s data rate.][
]
See also
*
*
*
References
Further reading
*
External links
Fobos-Grunt at Spacefiles.com
Includes an image of Yinghuo-1.
{{Politics of outer space
2011 in China
Space probes launched in 2011
Chinese space probes
Missions to Mars
Fobos-Grunt
Spacecraft which reentered in 2012
Attached spacecraft
Destroyed space probes