China’s Zhurong rover on Mars remains motionless

22 Feb. () –

China’s Zhurong rover on Mars remains motionless despite having completed its hibernation months agoreveal new images from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

In January, the Chinese space program admitted “uncertainty” about the conditions of his rover on Mars while waiting for it to reactivate after nine months of hibernation on the red planet. Zhurong went into dormant mode in May of last year to wait out the extremely cold winter and ferocious sandstorms on the red planet. The power generation capacity of the panels could have been affected.

Zhurong has been on Mars since May 2021, and the HiRISE camera has imaged the region of Mars multiple times “to watch the surface for changes”, reports the website of the University of Arizona dedicated to the instrument it’s a statement.

HiRISE is often used to observe changes in dust-shrouded areas near missions on the surface of Mars. Blast zones around landings or rover tracks can help scientists infer what the properties of surface materials are like.

The image above is from three images acquired in 2022 and 2023. The rover is the dark, relatively bluish feature visible in the top center of the first image (left) and bottom center of the other two images. This time series shows that the rover has not changed position between September 8, 2022 and February 7, 2023.