One thing might have gone very flawed for China’s first-ever Mars mission.
China launched Tianwen 1 in July 2020 and the mission’s rover, named Zhurong, touched down on the Purple Planet in Could 2021. The duo explored Mars easily till Could 2022, when Zhurong was put into hibernation, hunkering down for the cruel winter.
However the rover might not have exited hibernation as anticipated, in keeping with reviews from Space News (opens in new tab), which cite reporting from the South China Morning Post (opens in new tab) (SCMP), an English-language newspaper based mostly in Hong Kong, that Zhurong was anticipated to get up in December and hasn’t referred to as residence but. And concurrently, the Tianwen 1 Mars orbiter seems to be experiencing a communications glitch.
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Zhurong entered hibernation in May 2022 to assist it experience out the low temperatures, dust storms and sand storms widespread in Martian winter. The rover contains a particular anti-dust coating on its solar panels, which it angled earlier than hibernating in anticipation of the storms and its subsequent emergence from hibernation.
Nonetheless, it seems one thing has gone flawed. Unnamed sources advised the SCMP that groups on Earth have but to obtain sign from the rover following hibernation. It is unknown what the difficulty may be, however an unnamed supply advised SCMP that “almost definitely the sandstorms have critically weakened Zhurong’s capability to make use of its solar panels to generate energy.”
There’s extra unhealthy information for China’s space company: It seems that the Tianwen 1 orbiter has additionally gone quiet. The orbiter initially scouted for touchdown areas for Zhurong earlier than serving as a communications relay for the rover. Since then, the Tianwen 1 orbiter has been finishing up its personal science program, together with surveying and mapping the Red Planet.
“A Beijing-based supply mentioned floor management had encountered issue when downloading the most recent knowledge from the orbiting probe, which is supplied with two cameras,” South China Morning Put up wrote. Beginner radio operators have even noticed that Tianwen 1 floor stations seem to have stopped attempting to make contact (opens in new tab) with the orbiter.
China’s space company has but to touch upon the problems with Zhurong and Tianwen 1.
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