SCIENCE LAB SPECIAL : CHINA'S MARS ROVER

 

Extended Hibernation: At the moment, China's Mars rover is done with roving.

In an impressive feat, China landed its Zhurong rover on Mars in May 2021, joining NASA in exploring the red planet's surface.

But China. has not provided recent updates, and images from orbit show the vehicle fixed in the same place. Something seems to have gone wrong.

Zhurong went into hibernation in May last year, as planned, to conserve energy with the onset of winter.

In December, it was supposed to revive when the Martian delays became longer and warmer.

While no news has come from China, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter periodically passed overhead while studying the Martian surface. Its images show that Zhurong has not moved from September 2022 to February this year.

The NASA orbiter has documented other mishaps.

Schiaparelli, a European Space Agency spacecraft, was sent to Mars to test Landing technologies. But when it arrived, in 2016, it crashed 330 miles per hour, scarring the landscape.

The spacecraft has also spotted signs of success, like the parachute that helped slow NASA's Perseverance rover enroute to a safe landing in 2021. The images help engineers analyze the performance of their designs.

NASA also has eyes on the moon's surface, using the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A number of spacecraft have attempted - and failed - to land on the moon in recent years. An Israeli spacecraft, Beresheet, came close, but its engine was inadvertently shut off, and it crashed.

Indeed, in the 21st century so far, only China has successfully put spacecraft on the moon in one piece. And NASA's observer in orbit has been monitoring those as well. [ Kenneth Chang ]