Super technology leader

The existence of Interstellar Pathfinder Company has indeed shattered many people's preconceived notions.

There's no helping it; this company has risen too quickly.

The speed of its technological iteration and upgrades is even more outrageous.

If some of Pathfinder's technologies weren't more advanced than those of the Tianxia Aerospace National Team, everyone would have thought it was a private subsidiary of the national team.

Even so, Interstellar Pathfinder Company launching a 32-ton Mars exploration device right off the bat really startled everyone.

Previously, Tianxia's first independently developed Mars exploration device, 'Tianwen-1,' weighing over 5 tons, had already broken the weight record for planetary exploration devices. The emergence of the unmanned probe spacecraft was even more devastating, forcing the international aerospace community to directly upgrade its classification, placing it into the 'spacecraft' category, or else other people's probes would be rendered useless.

And now, with the opening of the 'Pathfinder' landing module's cargo hold, the real Mars exploration helicopter and the larger Mars rover have arrived.

These are the 'probes' on the unmanned probe spacecraft. The cargo bay doors on both sides opened, and the robotic arms lowered the helicopter and the rover respectively.

There's not much to say about the rover; it still looks like a traditional Mars unmanned rover, without any pressurized space.

Compared to previous Mars unmanned rovers, Interstellar Pathfinder's 'Land Pathfinder' rover is larger and carries more experimental equipment, truly comparable to a mobile laboratory.

Because there is no pressurized space, astronauts cannot drive it like in science fiction movies.

However, because of its large size, astronauts can still use it for transportation by sitting, standing, or hanging on it.

It is even equipped with a separate remote control system, allowing astronauts' driving skills to replace the slow autopilot mode.

If nothing unexpected happens, it can be used normally for a long time, so some of its designs take into account future usage scenarios.

After all, it's such a large piece of equipment. Making it a purely unmanned vehicle at this point in time would be too uneconomical. These extraterrestrial surface exploration unmanned vehicles are notoriously slow.

On the other side, the 'Sky Pathfinder,' which was also lowered, is the main attraction.

This helicopter does not have the shape of a traditional helicopter but is more like a large drone, more symmetrical.

Because when it comes to installing scientific research equipment, the helicopter's long 'tail' is of no use.

Strictly speaking, it is not the first unmanned helicopter on Mars. The first unmanned helicopter was America's 'Ingenuity,' although it weighed only 1.8 kilograms.

Despite its small size, it has a very big ambition.

'The Wright brothers showed that heavier-than-air aircraft could fly in Earth's atmosphere, and we are going to prove that aircraft can also fly in the Martian atmosphere.'

Of course, Mars, which doesn't even have a runway, won't be testing fixed-wing aircraft; they'll start with rotary-wing helicopters first.

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

The 'Ingenuity' helicopter is very small, with a rotor diameter of 1.2 meters and a height of 0.8 meters. The rotor diameter far exceeds the length of the instrument compartment.

The overall structure consists of a pair of coaxial counter-rotating propellers, four strut-style landing supports, a 14-centimeter-sided cubic instrument compartment, and a solar panel on top that can provide 350 watts of power, with a total mass of 1.8 kilograms.

Its coaxial propeller rotates at nearly 3,000 revolutions per minute, which is even faster than the propeller speed of a fixed-wing propeller aircraft, while the rotor speed of a typical helicopter on Earth is only a few hundred revolutions per minute.

Its maximum flight distance is 300 meters, the radio control range is 1 kilometer, the maximum flight altitude is only 5 meters, the maximum horizontal flight speed is 10 meters per second, and the vertical speed is 3 meters per second.

From this data, it doesn't even meet the standards of a drone, but it is going to fly on the surface of Mars. What we see in these data is only the surface.

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

The principle of aircraft takeoff is to rely on the pressure difference between the upper and lower surfaces of the wing to obtain lift. The extremely low atmospheric density of Mars indicates that its flight environment is very harsh.

At the same time, Mars' gravity is only one-third of Earth's, which places higher demands on landing and hovering.

So the 'Ingenuity' unmanned helicopter's 5-meter flight environment on the surface of Mars is equivalent to the atmosphere at an altitude of 30,000 meters on Earth.

Let alone helicopters, even ordinary fighter jets can't fly to this altitude. The legendary Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft has a maximum ceiling of only about 30,000 meters.

Taking the Black Hawk helicopter as an example, its service ceiling is 5,700 meters. The 'Alouette' helicopter has set a record of 12,442 meters in the plains, while Tianxia's high-altitude helicopter flew over Mount Everest at an altitude of 9,000 meters.

But flying at such extreme altitudes is very difficult to control, let alone accurately perform certain tasks.

Just imagine, the 'Ingenuity' helicopter can theoretically fly at an altitude of 30,000 meters on Earth. How awesome is that.

Of course, that's just theoretical, because the duration of each takeoff and landing is only 90 seconds.

And the 'Sky Pathfinder' is basically the ultimate enlarged version of 'Ingenuity,' expanding from 1.8 kilograms to more than 5,000 kilograms, which is more than 5 tons.

Using the data from 'Ingenuity,' you can imagine how big it is.

It is loaded with a large number of devices, the most core of which is the power generation device. Without electricity, it can't even fly.

Moreover, its current state on Mars can be considered 'isolated and helpless,' so in order to make it work for a long time, it must ensure that its power is continuous, even if it can't be inexhaustible, it can't be disposable.

So there is a comprehensive power supply and storage system consisting of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, solar panels covering the fuselage, and batteries, but this is not the core technology. The most core technology is the complex power conversion device that can be used on Mars.

Because whether it is a radioisotope thermoelectric generator or a solar panel, their power is not high. In order to make the isolated and helpless helicopter work for a long time, the helicopter must have an 'inexhaustible' source of energy, and these two just happen to be suitable.

However, their power is not high, so an advanced power conversion device is needed.

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

It's just that the Martian atmosphere is too thin, so it doesn't fly very high. The practical ceiling is only 100 meters, which is about enough to ensure that it can fly straight over many terrains.

In this process, various devices can operate continuously, and their power consumption can be guaranteed.

Fortunately, the people on Canxing are already considering the miniaturization of nuclear fusion devices. In a few days, or months, oh, I'm talking about the time here on Earth, it will probably be available.

For now, let's make do with this one.

So, in the envious and shocked eyes of billions of Earthlings, this 'giant' unmanned helicopter, which was being made do with, turned its six large wheels and moved forward.

Yes, the bottom of the 'Sky Pathfinder' has wheels instead of landing gear, after all, it is very close to the landing device 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, it will not or cannot land exactly in the right position, so these wheels are needed to move it to the right position.

So after it moves to the right position, the huge propeller starts to rotate.

From the initial slow rotation, to the subsequent sound of a 'whooshing' fast rotation, and finally the 'buzzing' rapid rotation.

This scene, through the camera of the landing module next to it, traveled hundreds of millions of kilometers across the starry sky and was displayed on the screens of billions of people on Earth.

And the viewers watching the live broadcast could clearly see that in the red dust and sand, the huge rotor drove the 'Sky Pathfinder' to fly on the surface of Mars!