The European Space Agency's Mars Express collected data from China's Mars rover and successfully sent it to Earth.
The rover was designed to communicate with the other, but it has outlived its purpose and the other is no longer able to do as much data relaying. Europe and China decided to send data from Zhurong to Mars. The communications equipment of the robots doesn't match. The Mars Express can detect at a certain Frequency, but not at the same one as Zhurong.
The data was transmitted from the Mars Express to the European Space Operations Center ground stations after it passed 2,500 miles above the location of Utopia Planitia.
China's Mars rover just snapped a self-portrait on the Red Planet.
"Mars Express received the signals from the rover and our colleagues in the Zhurong team confirmed that all the data arrived on Earth in very good quality," said a systems engineer at the European Space Agency.
Mars rovers don't carry large communications array, but they collect a lot of science data down on the surface. They rely on the satellites to relay their high volumes of data across the inner solar system to Earth.
Normally a rover and a orbiter will send short messages to establish two-communications. Mars Express uses different communication frequencies that make two-way communication impossible. The first test of a one-way communication technique was carried out by the European Space Agency, where the sender can't be sure if their signal is being received.
China's first Mars rover, called Zhurong, landed on the Red Planet in May and has been exploring. The rover and its companion Tianwen 1 have been relaying data to Earth. With the start of the science mission by Tianwen 1 in November, the opportunities for relaying the valuable information have been reduced. The mission is to map Mars.
The image is from the European Space Agency.
A series of five communications tests between Mars Express and Zhurong were carried out in November thanks to existing cooperation between the China National Space Administration and the European Space Agency. During the journey to Mars, theESA provided ground station support.
The data received by Mars Express was corrupted during four of the five tests, according to an email from the European Space Agency. interference from another unit on Mars Express was found to be the cause of the glitch.
The fourth test yielded results, as the orbiter successfully collected 233 kilobytes of data and sent it on to Earth. Additional tests are being arranged by the mission teams. Billig said that they were looking forward to carrying out more tests to improve the method of communicating between space missions.
The teams will make sure that the tests are compatible with the science plan of the Mars Express. The next test would look at different bit rates.
"Mars Express could play a role in the future, but it would have to be agreed between the two space agencies," the spokesman said.
Mars Express has been around the Red Planet for over a year. Its activities include finding methane in the Martian atmosphere, mapping the composition of polar ice and detecting water beneath the south pole.
A report on the communications test revealed that the Chinese team had covered a total of 4,255 feet (1,297 meters) in 196 Martian days.
The rover had covered 4,111 feet by early November, suggesting that it has been analyzing a trough rather than pushing south.
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