On Feb. 10, China’s Tianwen 1 mission — the nation’s first interplanetary mission — celebrated its second anniversary in Mars orbit. However one main piece of the mission, the Zhurong rover, appears to have stalled, and there is now picture proof of its stationary state.
Zhurong entered a deliberate hibernation in Could 2022 to journey out the darkish and chilly Martian winter, because the rover depends on solar power for energy and warmth. Its controllers on the China Nationwide House Administration (CNSA) anticipated a wake-up in December as the sunshine returned in Martian spring, however the company has not yet provided any updates about Zhurong.
New images (opens in new tab) launched Tuesday (Feb. 21) by the College of Arizona, which manages the HiRISE digicam on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, present that Zhurong didn’t transfer between Sept. 7, 2022, and Feb. 8, 2023, additional suggesting that the rover has not but awoken from hibernation.
Associated: China silent on fate of Zhurong Mars rover on 2nd anniversary of Tianwen 1 mission
In January, the South China Morning Submit reported that the rover had not but re-established communications with mission management. There are a lot of causes that the rover may stay in hibernation. Mud might need collected on Zhurong’s solar panels, lowering their effectivity. And information from NASA’s Perseverance rover, a nuclear-powered spacecraft that may function by means of winter, means that Mars remains to be fairly chilly — probably under Zhurong’s working ranges.
Tianwen 1 mission deputy chief designer Jia Yang told reporters in September 2022 that to ensure that Zhurong to get up from hibernation, the rover should attain a temperature of 5 levels Fahrenheit (minus 15 levels Celsius) and generate a minimum of 140 watts of power.
Each situations will be remedied by circumstances on Mars — a dust satan or wind storm may clear the solar panels, as occurred with NASA’s Spirit rover in 2005, and the planet may heat up because the 12 months progresses.
And if Zhurong is in for a everlasting sleep, all isn’t misplaced: The rover has efficiently accomplished its unique mission, which was supposed to final simply three months on the Martian floor. In total, Zhurong efficiently accomplished a 12 months of operations, which is not any small feat. In September 2022, the rover’s mission was presented with the Worldwide Astronautical Federation’s annual space achievement award.
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