The China National Space Administration (CNSA) hopes to restore communication with the Zhurong rover, but so far their efforts have been unsuccessful. Zhurong was put into hibernation more than six months ago as it cowered in attempts to survive the Martian winter.
But it was a harsh winter in Utopia Planetia in the northern hemisphere of Mars, where Zhurong is located. Not only were the temperatures extremely cold, colder than -100°C (-148°F), but a regional dust storm severely reduced the likelihood that the rover could harvest power with its solar panels. It’s the same dust storm that precipitated the end of NASA’s Mars InSight mission.
According to the South China Morning Post, the mission team predicts that Zhurong will resume operations around December 26, when the planet’s northern hemisphere has entered the spring season and environmental conditions have improved. But so far no contact has been established.
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China’s Zhurong rover landed on Mars in May 2021. This HiRISE image taken on March 11, 2022 shows the rover’s new location. Credit: NASA/JPL/UofA
Zhurong landed on Mars on May 15, 2021, making China the second country ever to successfully land a rover on Mars. The cute rover, named after the Chinese god of fire, surveyed the landing site, sent back photos — including a selfie with the lander taken by a remote camera — studied the topography of Mars and conducted other science experiments.
The South China Morning Post also cited sources as saying that China’s space authorities plan to send its orbiter, the Tianwen-1 probe, to take pictures of the rover. However, the sources said that “ground control encountered difficulties in downloading the latest data from the orbiter, which is equipped with two cameras.”
An image from China’s Zhurong rover shows spacecraft hardware in the foreground and Martian terrain in the background. (Credit: CNSA)
The winter solstice in the northern hemisphere of Mars began on July 26, 2022 (on Earth), and conditions should have improved by the end of December
According to Jia Yang, deputy chief designer of the Tianwen-1 drilling system, the rover is programmed to wake up on its own when two conditions are met: its power level must reach 140 watts and the temperature of key components, including batteries, must be above minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees F.)
The Zhurong lander had a primary mission of three months, but remained operational for a year and traveled nearly 2 km (1.24 mi) across the terrain. Using its ground-penetrating radar, scientists have found evidence of two major floods on Mars that are believed to have occurred millions of years ago.
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