New images from China's Zhurong rover on Mars may show it unexpectedly coming to the end of the road.
China's Mars rover appears to have been completely exhausted on the red planet's sandy, barren surface. The Zhurong rover, which reached Mars in 2021, went into hibernation in May 2022. However, reports that he has not made contact with Earth since then first surfaced in early January. Now, it looks like the tool may be completely sold out.
The Zhurong rover was part of China's first interplanetary mission known as Tianwen-1. The mission was launched to study the topography of the Martian surface. China's Mars rover completed its primary mission before hibernation, but was scheduled to resume additional missions in December. Unfortunately, the rover remains silent despite being designed to wake up again.
The cause of the vehicle's death is most likely attributable to solar panels covered in sand. Other spacecraft to explore Mars have also encountered this problem in the past, including NASA's InSight lander. Solar-powered spacecraft have the potential to work forever as long as the Sun is there to power them. But China's Mars rover seems to have suffered the same fate as other solar-powered spacecraft on Mars.
Photos showing the vehicle's demise were taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Three images taken in 2022 and 2023 show the rover near a crater on the surface of the Red Planet. According to researchers from the University of Arizona, the additional two photos prove that China's Mars rover is at rest from its resting point near the crater.
According to the photos, the reconnaissance vehicle remained in place from September 8, 2022 to February 7, 2023, without changing its position. During its mission, China's Mars rover covered about 2 kilometers during its mission before stopping near the crater it now stands next to. While it's possible we'll see the rover come to life in the future, if the solar panels were covered in dust, that's highly unlikely.
