Explained | Zhurong's slumber continues for months. Has China's Mars rover fallen 'silent' forever?

It’s been months since China’s Zhurong Mars rover entered a “hibernation” to wait out the cold and harsh winter on planetMars’ northern hemisphere and its alien landscape. However, the slumber which was planned to end in December of last year still continues. Now the question is, will the rover ever wake up? There’s still hope.

What is Zhurong?

Zhurong is part of Tianwen 1, China’s ambitious Mars mission, and the nation’s first interplanetary mission. The mission, which includes a Mars rover, touched down on the Red Planet’s Utopian Planitia in May of the year 2021.

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Why is a rover ‘sleeping’?

Following its landing, it conducted a range of scientific and exploration activities before retreating into a so-called hibernation or dormant state to survive the barren planet’s winter, during which, as per space.com, temperatures can fall down to minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 degrees Celsius).

It went to sleep on May 18 of last year.

What conditions are needed for it to wake up?

Talking to reporters in September 2022, Jia Yang, a Tianwen 1 mission deputy chief designer, revealed that Zhurong would wake up by itself when two conditions are met: it can generate energy greater than 140 watts and the planet’s temperature, or rather the region where the rover is, reaches the somewhat warmer, 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius).

When was it supposed to rise up again?

Zhurong slumber was expected to end in December when the red planet experiences its spring equinox. However, this did not happen. So far, it’s just silence.

What went wrong?

As per a January 9 report by Space News, China’s first interplanetary mission may be in trouble “with the rover potentially lost on the surface after winter hibernation”. There is also speculation that maybe the temperatures just aren’t warm enough.

What is the temperature on Mars currently?

As per NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which is also wandering Mars’s surface, the temperature in the planet’s Jezero Crater has only briefly risen higher than Zhurong’s lowest heat requirement.

But given that Perseverance is nearer to the red planet’s equator - located around seven degrees latitude south of its Chinese counterpart - it may be experiencing slightly more favourable conditions than Zhurong.

How is Perseverance awake?

NASA's 2020 rover Perseverance, meanwhile, is not asleep. It is nuclear-powered and doesn’t need to hibernate.

What else could be plaguing the Chinese rover?

Zhurong generates its power using solar arrays. Mars is known for its sand storms and there is concern that the dust from them may be hindering the rover and its solar arrays’ ability to generate power.

While Zhurong’s panels are made using anti-dust material and it has a vibration setting to shake off the dust, even that feature requires some power. The rover has to be active to “shake it off”.

What now?

The rover's mission with which China achieved the status of being the second country to reach the surface of Mars is already a great success.

But only time can tell if it will wake up to achieve bigger and better things.

(With inputs from agencies)

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