Next stop, Mars
In the 20th century, we achieved a manned landing on the moon, and for the first time human beings have the ability to land on another celestial body besides the earth. In the first half of the 21st century, we will realize the dream of manned landing on Mars. This is the most important and complex space program in the history of human spaceflight and will have a profound impact on the future of mankind.
The exploration of interstellar space can never rely on illusory fantasy, but can only rely on step by step advancement of technology to accumulate capital. According to the current exploration results, life and liquid water may have existed on Mars, which provides hope for humans to emigrate to Mars and open up new living spaces. Mankind dreams of creating a greenhouse effect on Mars and transforming it into another habitable planet in the solar system after one or two hundred years.
From the daunting “Yinghua” to the “Holy Land” where the mystery is unlocked
, the truth of
“Yinghuashouxin” “Han Shu” has a record: “(Han Chengdi) Suihe Second Spring, Yinghuashouxin. February Yichou, Prime Minister Zhai Fangjin wanted to commit suicide in a disaster. In March Bingxu, the palace car was driving.” The above paragraph may seem commonplace today, but there is actually a bloody political tragedy hidden behind it.
In the second year of Suihe (7 BC), the Western Han Dynasty was crumbling and the people were not living, and peasant uprisings broke out in various places. Coupled with foreign relatives’ arrogance in politics, almost all power was controlled by the Queen Mother Wang’s family, which laid the blame for Wang Mang to usurp the Han. . At this time, Emperor Han Cheng was incompetent, obsessed with drinking, and even had no successor prince. At this time, an astrology family told Emperor Han Cheng that the most dangerous “Lingluo Shouxin” celestial phenomenon appeared in the sky, which was a bad omen for the emperor’s death. Emperor Han Cheng was very afraid that disaster would come to him, so he issued an edict to reprimand the prime minister Zhai Fangjin, saying that he was ineffective in doing things, resulting in political disorder and natural disasters. The emperor’s life might not be guaranteed. Be cautious”. After reading the edict, Zhai Fang had no choice but to commit suicide loyally to prevent the emperor from disaster. Nevertheless, within one month, Emperor Han Cheng, who was in his prime, died violently, and the Western Han Dynasty was also usurped by Wang Mang more than ten years later.
As the prime minister, Zhai Fangjin had to commit suicide because of the celestial phenomena of “glooming and guarding his heart”. There must be a complicated political struggle behind him. Nevertheless, we can also see from it that under the influence of the idea of interaction between heaven and man, ancient Chinese astronomy is closely integrated with astrology and astrology, with a strong humanistic spirit and non-scientific color. This characteristic is not only manifested. Politically, it had an impact on all aspects of ancient society at that time. However, it is precisely because of the official emphasis on astronomy that our country has accumulated very rich astronomical records in the past dynasties, some of which are still useful for modern astronomical research.
So, what kind of celestial phenomenon is “Yinghuo Shouxin”? The original meaning of the word “yingzhu” is to confuse and dazzle people. Among the five planets visible to the naked eye, the color of Mars is bright red, the brightness varies greatly, and its trajectory is the most complicated, which is often confusing. Therefore, the ancients also called Mars “Fantasy”. “Heart” refers to one of the twenty-eight acres in ancient times. The brightest star in the heart is the well-known Antares in the constellation Scorpio. This is a red giant star, bright red and bright, like a blazing flame. Called “The Great Fire”. In the “Historical Records”, there is a record of “Enchantment is a puppet, the outside is to manage the soldiers, and the inside is to manage the government…”, which means that Mars is related to disasters; and the heart is the place of the “mingtang” in the sky, and the heart is the emperor Symbolic. In the eyes of the ancients, the encounter between the two is naturally not a good sign for the king.
The planets are in orbit, because the relative position of the earth changes, their positions are constantly changing on the starry sky background. The apparent motion of the planet in the sky is sometimes prograde (moving from west to east) and sometimes retrograde (moving from east to west). There is a moment between prograde and retrograde. The planet appears to stay motionless, which is called “stay”. When Mars “stays” in the heart, it is called “Fantasy Shouxin”.
In fact, the phenomenon of “glooming and conserving the heart” occurs approximately once every 50 years, and the most recent one occurred in 2016. According to some scholars’ statistics, there are only 23 records of “Yinghuo Shouxin” in Chinese history books, but 17 records including this one in the second year of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty did not actually occur. Therefore, it is inferred that these records are related to current events. And made false records. The distorted development of ancient Chinese astronomy under the constraints of imperial power is evident from this.
Source of Science Fiction
The strange movement of Mars puzzled the ancients, and the reddish color reminded people of “blood” and “fire”. Therefore, the ancient Chinese regarded it as “Fantasy”, and the Babylonians associated it with the god of death Neil Galle. , The ancient Greeks regarded it as the “God of War”. This type of association has continued into modern and modern times, and has influenced science fiction writers and even some scientists, making them wishful thinking “discoveries”, the most famous of which is undoubtedly the so-called “Mars Canal.”
In 1877, Mars and the Earth moved to the closest point in their relative orbits, and astronomers pointed their telescopes at Mars for detailed observations. The Italian astronomer Schiparelli was surprised to find that the circular surface of Mars is covered with a complex pattern of very fine straight lines. He called these lines “Canali”, which means “ditch”, but was mistranslated into English “Ca-nal” (ie “canal”), implying that they are artificial structures, and thus speculated that they exist on Mars With wisdom life. This “discovery” was widely reported by the media and caused a sensation.
In 1894, American astronomer Rowell funded the establishment of an observatory on a plateau in Arizona with an altitude of more than 2,000 meters. Its main mission was to observe the “Mars Canal.” By the time he died in 1916, Rowell had recorded more than 700 “Mars Canals.” You must know that at that time, people had just spent a lot of money successfully digging the Panama Canal, which was a high-tech super large project. These “discoveries” of astronomers greatly enriched people’s imagination of Martians at that time. In people’s imagination, Martians are proficient in mathematics, good at invention, and mastered more advanced technology than humans. Thus, science fiction or science fiction films about the Martian invasion of the earth are all the rage.
With the development of astronomy and the advent of the space age, the existence of higher life and canals on Mars disappeared. However, people’s enthusiasm for detecting life on Mars has never diminished. Mars is still the last hope for life on the surface of planets in the solar system except Earth, attracting people to continuously launch probes for on-orbit or landing exploration.
Mars ushered in the era of exploration
Mankind entered the space age and could not wait to start exploring Mars. The first to reach Mars and successfully carried out exploration was the “Sailor 4” probe launched by the United States. On July 14, 1965, “Marine 4” passed over 9,800 kilometers above the surface of Mars and sent 21 photos back to Earth. The data it sent back showed that the atmospheric density of Mars is far thinner than previously thought. On November 14, 1971, Mariner 9 reached Mars, becoming the first probe ever to successfully enter an orbit around Mars. It has worked in Mars orbit for nearly a year, and sent back 7,329 photos covering more than 80% of the surface of Mars. It also detected two satellites of Mars and achieved unprecedented success.
