The Mars rover Zhurong hasn't moved since last fall, new orbiter images confirm, suggesting that the Chinese rover may be at the end of its lifespan.
New images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that the Mars rover did not move from its spot on Utopia Planitia, a large plain in Mars' northern hemisphere, between September 2022 and February 2023. The rover had been in a planned hibernation since May 2022, but was expected to wake up in December as winter in Mars' northern hemisphere came to a close and sunlight to power the rover became more abundant.
However, China's space agency has been silent on the rover's status, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com . In January, two anonymous sources familiar with the country's Mars program, known as the Tianwen-1 mission, told the South China Morning Post that the rover has failed to re-establish communication with mission control. The new images from NASA were released Feb. 21 and show the rover on Sept. 8, 2022 and Feb. 7, 2023.
Zhurong has yet to be declared officially dead, and might come back to life if temperatures warm or if a storm blows its solar panels clean. However, the new images confirm that the rover did not wake as expected at the end of its planned hibernation period.—NASA rover snaps photos of ancient 'waves' carved into Mars mountainsideZhurong is China's first planetary rover.
The original mission was planned to last three months, but Zhurong continued operating for a full year before its planned hibernation. The larger Tianwen-1 mission also includes an orbiter, which will continue to collect data on Mars' atmosphere and surface regardless of the rover's fate.
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