29 October 2021
Zhurong Mars rover will perform a radio test with the Mars Express of the European Space Agency (ESA) next month after it survived the almost one-month solar outage. ESA Operations announced on 27 October that its Mars Express team is planning a series of five communication tests with the Chinese Zhurong Mars rover in November. Zhurong will transmit data 'blind' as part of a technique designed over a decade ago but not tested in orbit until now. ESA will pass any received data on to the Zhurong team for analysis.
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original news: Mars Express blog entry on the ESA webpage
Mars Express keeps an ear out for Chinese rover
27 October 2021
ESA’s Mars Express team is planning a series of five communication tests with the Chinese Zhurong Mars rover in November. While the Mars Express spacecraft can ‘hear’ the rover, the rover cannot ‘hear’ Mars Express. Zhurong will transmit data ‘blind’ as part of a technique designed over a decade ago but not tested in orbit until now. ESA will pass any received data on to the Zhurong team for analysis.
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27 October 2021
The 12th mission by a Kuaizhou-1A rocket sent the optical remote sensing satellite Jilin-1 Gaofen-02F into space. The satellite, developed by Changguang Satellite Technology, can provide high resolution images and high-speed data transmission. 
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25 October 2021
Zhurong's autonomous systems made it possible that the rover could stay for the last month without support from ground control. The designers gave Zhurong the ability to deal with complex problems autonomously. As a smart rover, it only communicates with Earth once or twice a day. It can plan its own path and avoid obstacles, and can decide when to sleep and wake up, depending on environmental changes. The communication link is established once the orbiter flies over the rover. The engineers set the algorithsm for Zhurong to calculate time based on the trajectory of sunlight.
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25 October 2021
In this week's episode, Jean Deville and Blaine Curcio reflect on the test of the 500-t thrust solid-fueled rocket booster and give further background information. The 2 experts have a discussion over conflicting information about the hypersonic glide vehicle test and last week's FOBS test (fractional orbital bombardment system) and they also inform about the Deep-Space Exploration and Technology Application Forum in Shenzhen.
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