The chief designer of the Chinese planetary exploration program, Zhang Rongqiao, said that the Chinese spacecraft “Zuorong” has not yet emerged from its planned hibernation on Mars.
Zhang told Chinese state television on Tuesday that the rover was expected to be operational four months ago, but the module’s power output was insufficient because the rover’s solar sails were covered in more dust than expected.
If the dust coverage level exceeds 30%, Zhang said, the required power capacity can only be reached again when the sun is at its strongest.
“If the dust coverage level exceeds 40 percent, the rover will never wake up,” Zhang added.
The rover, named after the Chinese god of fire, was put into low-power mode in May 2022 due to the cold and dusty winter on the Red Planet.
The Chinese spacecraft “Zurong” was supposed to wake up last December, once its power level reached more than 140 watts, and the battery temperature rose above minus 15 degrees Celsius, but there was no signal.
The rover landed in the Utopia Planetia region of Mars in May 2021.
The spacecraft made China only the second space nation after the United States to successfully deploy an exploration vehicle to the planet. The mission is already considered a success because all planned projects have been implemented. The vehicle traveled about two kilometers above the surface of Mars, made many scientific discoveries, found traces of previous water deposits, and worked for three months longer than planned.
