China ’s Zhurong scouter went into hibernation mode in May 2022 to avoid the coarse wintertime time of year on Mars , but communicating publication , both with the wanderer and orbiter , evoke something ’s now very wrong with the mission .
The six - wheeledMartian roverwas scheduled to wake up in late December , but it has n’t been heard from since entering into its scheduled hibernation modal value , nameless sourcestoldthe South China Morning Post , as firstreportedby SpaceNews .
Zhurong landed on Mars on May 14 , 2021 as China ’s first Martian mission . The rover was sent to Mars with the Tianwen-1 orbiter , which relays data between the rover and undercoat comptroller on Earth . About a class after tramp andinvestigatingthe Red Planet , the roverentered hibernation — a variety of low power secure style — in anticipation of the Martian wintertime , when temperature extend to around -4 degrees Fahrenheit ( -20 degree Celsius ) during the day and -148 F ( -100 C ) at night . The winter season on Mars also includes Baroness Dudevant and dust storm , which immobilize the rover ’s solar control board and forbid it from hoard sun to generate power . For its own protection , Zhurong squat down in a dormant state for those chilly , stale months on Mars .

The Chinese rover snapped this selfie of itself on Mars shortly after landing on the Red Planet.Image: China News Service
By late December , which stigmatize the beginning of Martian leap , the bird of passage was supposed to autonomously restart its activeness . However , the China National Space Administration has yet to send out any updates regarding the rover , in what is an ill sign . The rover ’s solar panels could be covered by dust , reducing its ability to generate office and preventing it from turn back on , accord to the SCMP ’s sources . It ’s worth noting that NASA ’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are able to power through Mars ’s wintertime season using aradioisotope king system .
Long television , but this is the Doppler change state around for#TIANWEN1this evening as the anomaly develop . mention how it ’s cycling between a much higher charge per unit sign and the lower rate one . This entail to me that a ground station is struggling to accomplish ringlet with the spacecraft.pic.twitter.com/tdHBAgd3NT
— Scott Tilley 🇺 🇦 ( @coastal8049)January 9 , 2023

And it may not just be the rover that ’s in trouble . The delegation ’s Tianwen-1 orbiter has also reportedly gone silent . Scott Tilley , prof at the Florida Institute of Technology , notedon Twitter that the radio sign between the land place and Tianwen-1 indicate that mission controllers may have stop trying to intercommunicate with the artificial satellite after fail to reach impinging . This is inauspicious , as China plan toperform aerobraking tests in 2023with Tianwen-1 in expectation of a future Mars sampling yield mission .
It ’s possible that the problem with the artificial satellite is come to to the job with Zhurong , but we ’ll have to wait for China to finally say something prescribed on the topic . In the case we do n’t get wind back from the bird of passage and its orbital companion , China ’s deputation to Mars will still be deemed a winner , as it was initially designed to last for three months on the Red Planet but managed to live on for over a class .
More : China ’s Zhurong Rover Captures Remarkable Sights and Sounds on Mars

geographic expedition of MarsMars roversOpportunitySpacecraftSpaceflight
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