China’s First Mission to Mars Seems to Be Struggling

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.

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

Ankercompact

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

Ms 0528 Jocasta Vision Quest