“Chinese Mars Rover Zhurong Stranded in Hibernation Mode, China Acknowledges”

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Zhurong, a Chinese-made Mars rover, is stranded in the uninhabited planet. For a year, the robot goes into hibernation, so it can’t move.

Previously it was reported that Zhurong went into hibernation mode around last year in preparation for avoiding winter on Mars. The robot should wake up in December 2022.

However, Zhurong did not wake up. China has been silent about this condition. State media Xinhua said only that the Tianwen-1 orbiter was in good condition and was continuing to perform its duties.

Now, finally China opened its voice. The Chief Designer for the Mars exploration program, Zhang Rongqiao, has finally acknowledged that the Chinese government has yet to make contact with Zhurong after months into hibernation mode.

“We haven’t been able to access communication with Zhurong at all since he entered hibernation,” he said, quoted from ReutersTuesday (2/5/2023).

Furthermore, he said that the Chinese government believed Zhurong would wake up if exposed to the sun. According to him, communication could not be carried out because there was not enough sunlight for Zhurong to gather new energy to operate.

Issues like this are common for spacecraft that depend on solar resources. The same thing happened to NASA’s Insight Lander last year.

Zhurong’s problems first surfaced in January. NASA managed to capture the robot through the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

This camera rides on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. There are three separate images taken on March 11, 2022, September 22, 2022 and most recently February 7, 2023.

In the first frame, the vehicle is still active and the rover looks like a bluish, misty blob. Next, in the second and third pictures, Zhurong looks far down next to the crater.

It is not surprising that China has been silent for months. This is because China needs strict protocols to disseminate information related to their country.

(fab/fab)