Formation of Tianwen-1 landing crater and mechanical properties of Martian soil near the landing site

作者

Xinshuo Chen Zhaobin Zhang Juan Li Shouding Li
单位

Key Laboratory of Shale Gas and Geoengineering,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences Innovation Academy for Earth Science,Chinese Academy of Sciences College of Earth and Planetary Sciences,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics,Institute of Geology and Geophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences School of Mathematics,North University of China
摘要

After landing in the Utopia Planitia, Tianwen-1 formed the deepest landing crater on Mars, approximately40 cm deep, exposing precious information about the mechanical properties of Martian soil. We established numerical models for the plume-surface interaction(PSI) and the crater formation based on Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) methods and the erosion model modified from Roberts' Theory.Comparative studies of cases were conducted with different nozzle heights and soil mechanical properties. The increase in cohesion and internal friction angle leads to a decrease in erosion rate and maximum crater depth, with the cohesion having a greater impact. The influence of the nozzle height is not clear, as it interacts with the position of the Shock Diamond to jointly control the erosion process. Furthermore,we categorized the evolution of landing craters into the dispersive and the concentrated erosion modes based on the morphological characteristics. Finally, we estimated the upper limits of the Martian soil's mechanical properties near Tianwen-1 landing site, with the cohesion ranging from 2612 to 2042 Pa and internal friction angle from 25° to 41°.
基金项目(Foundation)

supportedbytheKeyResearchProgramoftheInstituteofGeologyandGeophysics,CAS(Nos.IGGCAS-202102andIGGCAS-201904)；theNationalNaturalScienceFoundationofChina(No.42230111)；theCASKeyTechnologyTalentProgram；
文章目录

1. Introduction
2. Methods
2.1.Plume computation
2.2.Soil failure and erosion
2.3.Formation of landing craters
3. Model validation and calibration
3.1.Shear stress validation
3.2.Erosion rate calibration
4. Results
4.1.Plume structure
4.2.Typical case of crater formation
4.3.Craters from different nozzle heights
4.4.Craters from different soil mechanical properties
5. Discussion
5.1.Crater formation and erosion mode
5.2.Mechanical properties of Martian soil
5.3.Error analysis
6. Conclusions
引用格式

[1]Chen X ,Zhang Z ,Li J , et al.Formation of Tianwen-1 landing crater and mechanical properties of Martian soil near the landing site[J].International Journal of Mining Science and Technology,2024,34(09):1293-1303.