Photo: MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP/Getty Images
For: The opinion Updated Jan 10, 2023, 5:30 p.m. EST
The first chinese mission to mars seems not to be going as planned, since Zhurong rover stopped responding after going into hibernation mode to endure the Martian winter.
According to sources consulted by the South China Morning Post, the scientists are still waiting for a signal from the rover Chinese from Mars, which was expected to wake up from hibernation last month.
The Zhurong, powered by solar energy, went into sleep mode in May to wait out the cold winter and fierce sandstorms of the red planet; but, according to the initial plan, the rover should have come out of that idle state by nowbut no contact has been established.
Zhurong was expected to would resume operations around December 26when the northern hemisphere of the planet entered its spring season and environmental conditions improved.
The scientists consulted believe that it is most probable that the martian sandstorms seriously weakened Zhurong’s ability to use your solar panels to generate power.
In May 2021, Zhurong and the Tianwen-1 lander touched down successfully landed on Mars as part of China’s first independent mission to that planet, becoming the only country other than the US to have accomplished such a feat.
The Tianwen-1 probe is also failing
One option to know what happens with the Chinese rover is send to the Tianwen-1 probe to find out what is happening with Zhurong; however, this possible action is also becoming more complicated.
The sources told the Post that the Chinese space authorities were planning to send the Tianwen-1 probe – which is currently revolves around mars in an elliptical orbit – to take images of the rover.
However, currently ground control had difficulties to download the latest data from the orbiting probe, equipped with two cameras.
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