The American Perseverance rover has successfully landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. The terrain is quite complex. There is now evidence that this crater was formed 3.6 billion years ago and is less than 50 kilometers in diameter. There used to be a lot of water in this place, and the water depth is estimated to have reached 250 meters. In other words, this is actually a large lake, and this lake is fed by a river, and the delta formed by the river can even be distinguished. Precisely because of the complex terrain, this has become the preferred location for Perseverance to land.
I believe that the control team of Perseverance must be very nervous. After all, landing on Mars is very difficult and risky. Because the distance between the Earth and Mars is too far and the radio has a long delay, it is impossible to rely on human control. Landing on Mars can only rely entirely on automated operations. Sometimes the control team has no choice but to stare blankly. The Americans themselves had failed before, and the Soviets basically never succeeded. I guess the American control team may have opened a large bag of peanuts to eat, which can help reduce stress. When encountering a stressful moment, opening a bag of peanuts to calm down is an old tradition at JPL.
Yes, the R&D and operations team behind Perseverance is the famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL. Speaking of this JPL, it can basically be regarded as the beginning of American rocket technology. In the early years, there were several innovative young people at the Guggenheim Laboratory at California Institute of Technology. They began to study high-speed flight of aircraft in 1934. They found that propellers were not suitable for high-speed flight. Therefore, von Karman, a professor at Caltech and a master of aerodynamics, asked his graduate student Malina to start studying jet propulsion technology, which is actually rocket technology.
It happened that von Karman’s assistant gave a lecture on rockets, mainly talking about the research of Austrian engineer Sanger, and the local newspaper published relevant news. As a result, this news attracted two young people who were obsessed with rocket research. One is named Parsons and the other is Forman. They had used gunpowder to make simple rockets, but they encountered problems when they wanted to make liquid rockets and couldn't figure it out, so they came to Caltech for help.
At this time, Malina, Parsons and Foreman met and decided to form a rocket research team. Arnold, who later studied astrophysics, also joined the group. He even brought money to join the group and donated $1,000 himself. Later, a young Chinese student came, the famous Qian Xuesen, and he became a student of von Karman. The earliest rocket research team consisted of just a few young people.
In fact, Qian Xuesen already knew a lot about rocket technology before he went to study in the United States. He wrote an article about rocket technology in the magazine "Zhejiang Youth" in August 1935, a very short period of time. morning. After joining the rocket team, he was mainly responsible for theoretical matters. He submitted a 114-page report that provided an in-depth analysis of liquid rockets. Many key issues are mentioned in it, such as the impact of the divergence angle of the nozzle on the rocket thrust. A mathematical physical model was also established for the relationship between the combustion chamber and the nozzle. With the guidance of theory, at least everyone no longer has to rush around like headless flies, and the efficiency is greatly improved.
Rocket experiments are dangerous to a certain extent. The nearby residents probably believed that these students were the source of the disaster, because an explosion occurred when these people were doing the experiment, blowing out the wall of the dormitory. A big hole. This matter is no joke. Under the pressure of public opinion, the school can only drive them to a river valley in the suburbs to conduct experiments. This place is spacious and it doesn't matter how they are bombed. This site later became the home of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In this way, these people have been tinkering with rocket experiments in private until 1937. By 1938, Professor von Kármán received a letter from the Army Air Corps stating that the Army was very interested in rockets. At that time, the U.S. military had already felt that war with Japan was inevitable. The runways for large aircraft taking off and landing on those small islands in the Pacific were not long enough. If there were rocket boosters, the take-off distance should be greatly shortened.
By 1939, after receiving funds, the rocket team wanted to become a serious laboratory. In view of the fact that the rocket team always caused explosions, and the word "rocket" has basically become a derogatory term in the local area, von Karman took a detour and named it "Jet Propulsion Laboratory", so that at least everyone would not resent it.
So, everyone understands. This jet has nothing to do with aviation jet engines. The jet refers to the rocket. Because it involved military affairs, Qian Xuesen was a foreign national and therefore no longer participated. After the Pearl Harbor incident broke out, China and the United States became allies, and von Karman helped Qian Xuesen obtain authority. The military also had to let Qian Xuesen re-engage in rocket research, because there were so few rocket talents at that time, and it would be a waste of resources if you left such a top expert unused.
So, Qian Xuesen is also one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a world-class rocket expert. But no one could have imagined that he was not only one of the pioneers of American rocket research, but also later became the founder of China's aerospace industry. The reason why he has such high achievements is that he is not just a rocket expert, but a strategic scientist. He participated in Operation Paperclip, the United States' effort to recruit German technological talents, and together with his mentor von Karman, he came into contact with a large number of German technical talents, including von Braun.
Braun brought a large group of German engineers to the United States and established a missile research institute belonging to the U.S. Army at the former site of the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The Soviet Union launched its first satellite, which shocked the Americans. The United States was about to respond to this challenge. It originally wanted the Navy's Pioneer to take the lead. Unexpectedly, the Pioneer exploded in full view of the public, making the Americans very embarrassed. If the Navy fails, then we can only look at the progress of the Army's Braun team and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Braun is responsible for the research and development of the Juno rocket, while JPL is responsible for the research and development of the satellite. The two institutions worked overtime and finally put the United States' first artificial satellite into orbit around the earth, which was a bit of a bit of face. JPL began its transformation from focusing on the development of rockets to the development of satellites and detectors.
Later, JPL was placed under the newly established NASA. According to the agreement between NASA and Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is hosted by Caltech. Since the 1960s, JPL has no longer been responsible for rocket engine research. Their main job is to study various planetary detectors. JPL is responsible for almost all lunar and planetary probes launched by the United States. Mariner, Viking, Magellan, Galileo, Voyager, Spirit, Opportunity...you can name a long list of famous detectors, all produced by JPL.
JPL’s most famous projects are Voyager 1 and 2. Because there was a rare phenomenon of nine stars in a row in the 1980s. That is, several major planets in the solar system line up. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. One probe can visit four giant gas planets. Voyager 1 and 2 brought mankind a large amount of detailed information about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Moreover, these two detectors have become the farthest-flying detectors by humans. The most famous photo, the dim blue dot, was taken by Voyager 1 in 1990.
The history of an organization like JPL is not short, and it has left behind a lot of cultural traditions. For example, we mentioned eating peanuts during major and dangerous flight activities. Perseverance When landing, everyone must have this thing on hand. This has been a habit and tradition for many years.
In the 1960s, JPL was left in disgrace when its Ranger lunar probes failed one after another. The main goal of the Ranger probe was to hit the moon. It failed 6 times in a row. By the 7th time, everyone shared some peanuts to distract themselves and relieve the tension. It happened that Ranger 7 succeeded. So eating peanuts was associated with success and became a culture at JPL. There is no way, rockets and detectors are all extremely complicated things. When something goes wrong, it’s hard to find, and it’s even a bit metaphysical.
To this day, there are still programmers who burn incense and make offerings to the server when a new version of the server is launched, which has the same meaning.
So, we can speculate that when Perseverance went through those terrifying 7 minutes just now, there must have been JPL engineers eating a lot of peanuts. These engineers are quite cute.
The members of JPL are not just a bunch of "straight men in science and engineering". JPL actually has an art studio with many artists who are both liberal arts and sciences. Every picture they publish is made through Well groomed. They can even provide beautiful posters for science fiction movies, which shows how powerful they are.
The country spends taxpayers’ money to support scientific institutions like JPL. What achievements you have made must be communicated to the public. Therefore, they are very concerned about popularizing science, and providing beautiful pictures and video clips is also a public relations activity. High public interest and loud voices will also go a long way in helping NASA ask the gentlemen in Congress for money. Therefore, JPL often holds open day activities, and many children immediately fell in love with astronomy, the sun, the moon and the stars after seeing these beautiful planet photos and these fun detector models. It has attracted generations of young people to devote countless youth and sweat to the aerospace industry.
For the exploration and research of the universe and space, there is no direct economic benefit for the time being. People are always asking, what is the point of spending so much money on planetary exploration? I think we are the ethnic group most qualified to answer this question. I am Han. If you trace the meaning of the word Han back, you will find that it actually refers to the Milky Way in the sky. Of course, this group named after the Milky Way cannot be absent in the space age. In fact, the truth is very simple. The earth is the cradle of mankind. Human beings cannot sleep in the cradle forever. Our dreams are the stars and the sea.
That’s all.