China’s Mars rover, Zhurong, was confirmed to still be dormant on the Red Planet’s surface, after failing to wake up in December.
Zhurong, which was named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, went into hibernation in May 2022 and was expected to wake up in December of the same year. However, this was not the case, as was confirmed on February 7, 2023, by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter camera, which showed that the rover still has not changed its position.
The rover’s objectives were to investigate the Red Planet’s topography, geology, and atmosphere, among others. Furthermore, Zhurong includes six main instruments to achieve its goals, namely those are:
Zhurong landed on Mars’ surface on May 12, 2021, and was designed to work on the planet for three months. However, it stayed operational for 358 days and travelled 1,921 meters before going into hibernation.
The mission’s chief designer, Zhang Rongqiao, stated that the probable causes for the rover not waking up are dust accumulation, requiring stronger lighting conditions to reawaken or that the rover’s journey has permanently come to an end.
Zhurong: Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of Tianwen-1 mission, tells CCTV that dust accumulation is the probable cause of the rover not waking. 20% dust coverage will cause issue, 30% requires strongest lighting conditions to reawaken, while 40% means game over, never waking up. pic.twitter.com/t8ntGLEBHS
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) April 25, 2023
Sources: edition.cnn.com, www.forbes.com, www.aljazeera.com, www.lpi.usra.edu, en.wikipedia.org
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