The payloads of planetary physics research onboard China's First Mars Mission (Tianwen-1)

摘要

Mars is not only our nearby but also the most Earth-like planetary neighbor.Scientific exploration of Mars is thus of crucial value to our understanding of the solar system.The existence of abundant evidence for the former presence of water on Mars demands further exploration for signs of life on our sister planet,and investigations that could shed light on conditions favorable to the origin of life.For nearly 60 years,humans have conducted orbitally-based remote sensing and in-situ surface exploration of Mars,leading to many significant scientific discoveries.But much remains to be done before we can be sure that we truly and fully understand Mars.Key research topics include the history of water on Mars and how that history relates to the planet’s habitable environment-past,present,and future;the distribution and evolution of waterbearing and evaporative salt minerals on the planet’s surface;the history of volcanic activity on Mars;the Martian magnetic field and its effect on the escape of water and atmosphere from the planet;interactions between the solar wind and the Martian atmosphere and ionosphere;atmospheric characteristics and climate change on Mars;and so on(Li CL et al.,2018;Liu JJ et al.,2018).Based on the above scientific questions about life,climate,and geology on Mars,the international planetary science community has formulated ambitious Mars exploration programs.