China’s first interplanetary rover, Zhurong, will likely stay dormant on Mars, a Chinese scientist said on state media CCTV on April 25.
Zhang Rongqiao, the chief scientist of China’s Mars mission, said that Zhurong has not moved due to a lack of solar power caused by a pile-up of sand and dust since it went into “hibernation” in May 2022.
The Zhurong rover was expected to reactivate last December when Mars went into spring equinox.
The Dormant Rover
In May 2022, the Chinese rover entered a planned hibernation state to get through the low solar radiation levels of winter in Mars’ Utopia Planitia region, where the spacecraft landed….