The lead developer of China’s Mars exploration program has made a long-awaited comment on the status of the country’s Zhurong rover. zhurong navigator On solar cells as part of the China mission Tianven 1 Mars has been hibernating in the planet’s northern hemisphere since May 2022. It was expected to wake up autonomously in December, when light and temperature conditions improved.

However, China remained silent It’s about Zhurong when December comes and goes. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the rover’s stay in February. fixed a few months. Chief mission designer Zhang Rongqiao told China Central Television this week that the team believes Zhurong did not wake up because more dust than expected had accumulated on the rover’s solar cells. This means that the sunlight Zhurong receives is not enough for him to wake up.

“We believe the most likely possibility is unexpected dust buildup on it. marcy “It has led to a reduction in power generation capacity that isn’t high enough to wake him up,” Zhang said.

Zhurong’s threshold to resume operations is 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius), and its electricity generation is over 140 watts. Zhang said that if the dust level on the panels were 30% higher than expected, Zhurong would need the strongest sunlight level on Mars to reactivate. A level of 40% or higher than expected means that the rover cannot wake up.

Northern hemisphere summer solstice on Mars occurs in mid-July, reports Planetary Community, when lighting and temperature conditions are optimal. NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity are both long-lived rover vehicles. finally succumbed to Martian dustIt shut down its solar panels, reducing their electricity production to an unoperable level.

Zhurong landed on Utopia Planitia in May 2021, celebrating the success of China’s first Mars landing attempt. The rover went into sleep mode in May 2022. Whether or not Zhurong returns to life, the mission has already exceeded its scheduled three-Earth-month lifespan. Like its companion orbiter Tianwen 1, the rover also reached its destinations. basic scientific goals.