China unable to reestablish contact with its Zhurong Mars rover

China’s Nationwide Area Administration (CNSA) has been hoping to reestablish communications with the Zhurong Mars rover, however up to now, their efforts have been unsuccessful. Zhurong was put into hibernation over six months in the past because it hunkered down in makes an attempt to outlive the Martian winter.

But it surely’s been a troublesome winter in Utopia Planetia in Mars northern hemisphere the place Zhurong is positioned. Not solely had been the temperatures extraordinarily low, colder than -100°C (-148°F), however a regional dust storm severely diminished the probability of the rover gathering any energy with its solar panels. This is identical dust storm that has hastened the top of NASA’s Mars InSight mission.

In response to the South China Morning Submit, the mission crew predicted Zhurong would resume operations round December 26 because the planet’s northern hemisphere entered its spring season and environmental conditions improved. However up to now, no contact has been established.

Zhurong landed on Mars on Could 15, 2021, making China the second nation ever to efficiently land a rover on Mars. The lovable rover, named after a Chinese language god of fireside, explored its landing site, despatched again photos —together with a selfie with its lander, taken by a distant digicam—studied the topography of Mars, and carried out different science experiments.

The South China Morning Submit additionally quoted sources saying that the Chinese language space authorities deliberate to ship the their orbiter, the Tianwen-1 probe, to take photos of the rover. Nonetheless, the sources stated “floor management had encountered issue when downloading the most recent information from the orbiting probe, which is provided with two cameras.”

The winter solstice within the northern hemisphere of Mars started on July 26, 2022 (on Earth) and situations ought to have improved by the top of December

In response to Jia Yang, deputy chief designer of the Tianwen-1 probe system, the rover is programmed to get up by itself when two situations are met: its energy stage should hit 140 watts and the temperature of key elements, batteries included, should exceed minus 15 levels Celsius (5 levels F.)

The Zhurong lander had a major mission of three months, however it remained operational for one 12 months and has traveled almost 2 km (1.24 miles) throughout the terrain. Utilizing its ground-penetrating radar, scientists discovered proof for 2 main flooding occasions on Mars, believed to have occurred hundreds of thousands of years in the past.