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China’s Mars rover isn’t coming out of hibernation

Environmental Protection Agency – EFE

NOS news

What happened to China’s Zhurong Mars spacecraft? Many planetary scientists and space experts have wondered about it. The device should have come out of hibernation a few weeks ago, but so far the rover has shown no signs of life. Meanwhile, the China Space Agency is silent about the status of the Mars rover.

Zhurong landed on the red planet in May 2021 as part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission, the country’s first interplanetary mission to include a Mars satellite. The rover spends a year searching before winter sets in on Mars and the rover goes into hibernation due to freezing temperatures. If it’s too cold, the robot won’t be able to charge its battery properly.

The rover was expected to wake up last December, in early spring on Mars, but the first reports emerged in early January that flight control was still waiting for a start signal. Now that things were quiet, the fear grew that Zhurong’s voice would never be heard.

That wouldn’t be surprising, said astrobiologist David Flannery, co-author of NASA’s Perseverance rover, at the site. alam. “There’s a long history of solar-powered landers and rovers on Mars running out of capacity.” Last month, NASA announced it had to say goodbye to the InSight lander, which could no longer generate enough power after a dust storm: solar panels were covered in Martian sand.

CNSA

Image from the Zhurong rover of a landscape on Mars

The latter could happen with Zhurong. If there is too much dust on the solar panel, the battery cannot be charged. The Rover has a mechanism for removing dust, but it only works when the vehicle is active.

Some are still optimistic. In the coming months, as the weather gets warmer, Zhurong may still be able to sufficiently charge his battery and emerge from sleep mode. For that, the minimum temperature must be 15 degrees Celsius and the battery must be able to produce at least 140 watts of power. According to measurements by the American Perseverance rover, which has covered a distance of more than 1,500 km, the temperature is now slightly higher.

In addition to Zhurong’s radio silence, China’s flight control recently lost contact with a satellite in orbit around Mars. Although not yet written off, the two spacecraft completed their primary mission last year. This made the Chinese mission a resounding success.

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