NASA Mars Orbiter Reveals China's Zhurong Rover Has Not Moved For Months (spacenews.com) 45
Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal that China's Zhurong rover remains stationary on the Red Planet as China remains silent on the status of its spacecraft. SpaceNews reports: The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured images of the rover on March 11, 2022, a second on Sept. 8, 2022 and finally Feb. 7, 2023. The images were published Feb. 21 by the HiRISE Operations Center The images show that the solar-powered Zhurong -- which landed in May 2021 -- has not moved since at least September 2022. It had entered a planned hibernation state in May 2022 to ride out the low solar radiation levels of winter in Mars's Utopia Planitia region.
Zhurong was expected to autonomously resume activities around December, around the time of Spring solstice in the northern hemisphere, when temperatures and light levels reached levels allowing the rover's battery and solar arrays to generate sufficient electrical power. However Chinese space authorities have not provided an update on the status of the rover. The South China Morning Post reported Jan. 7, citing sources that do not wish to be named, that the mission team was yet to receive a signal from Zhurong.
The progression of the HiRISE images suggest that Zhurong may have accumulated a covering of Martian dust on its surface. This could impact the function of both its solar arrays and the pair of "windows" which allow a chemical called n-undecane to store heat energy during the day and release it during the night. Zhurong does not carry a radioisotope heater unit -- which are used by the country's Yutu lunar rovers -- instead using systems including n-undecane for heating and a coating of aerogel for insulation.
Zhurong was expected to autonomously resume activities around December, around the time of Spring solstice in the northern hemisphere, when temperatures and light levels reached levels allowing the rover's battery and solar arrays to generate sufficient electrical power. However Chinese space authorities have not provided an update on the status of the rover. The South China Morning Post reported Jan. 7, citing sources that do not wish to be named, that the mission team was yet to receive a signal from Zhurong.
The progression of the HiRISE images suggest that Zhurong may have accumulated a covering of Martian dust on its surface. This could impact the function of both its solar arrays and the pair of "windows" which allow a chemical called n-undecane to store heat energy during the day and release it during the night. Zhurong does not carry a radioisotope heater unit -- which are used by the country's Yutu lunar rovers -- instead using systems including n-undecane for heating and a coating of aerogel for insulation.
Check engine light is on (Score:4, Funny)
Still waiting for diag from tech support :)
Re:As for myself... (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like a straight forward scientific report to me. No suggestion that this was anything but a fairly unexciting failure to come out of hibernation.
Obviously, bad news for the team who built Zhurong, but the real achievement of getting a rover to Mars and running it for a year is undiminshed.
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Looks like a straight forward scientific report to me. No suggestion that this was anything but a fairly unexciting failure to come out of hibernation.
Obviously, bad news for the team who built Zhurong, but the real achievement of getting a rover to Mars and running it for a year is undiminshed.
True... true... space stuff is hard stuff. But on the other hand, its hard to ignore China's ever-present quality control issues and questionable product reliability across industries. When I see the "Made in China" stamp on something, I either look for something else or approach the cash register with a sense of annoyance that I couldn't find a similar product made elsewhere.
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When I see the "Made in China" stamp on something, I either look for something else or approach the cash register with a sense of annoyance that I couldn't find a similar product made elsewhere.
To be fair, most of "made in China" stuff was simply built in China by a western company to save money, the design and the resulting quality approved by the same western company knowing that selling more lower quality products often makes better profit than selling a few high quality products. There are plenty of good quality stuff built in China (again with the design and the resulting quality approved in the west), the same is probably true for "built and designed in China" for local use. In the particul
Re:Check engine light is on (Score:5, Funny)
India is sending its rover soon.
Re: Check engine light is on (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Still waiting for diag from tech support :)
They must be on hold with India /s
Uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
Something must have gone Zhurong!
Utopia Planitia - the problem's obvious (Score:2, Funny)
It's those Terra Prime nutjobs - they must've hacked the rover!
If only we had a rover nearby (Score:3)
Imagine how epic it would be if we had a rover up there we could send over to give it a dusting and wake it up.
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In this respect, using a chemical-only heat-pipe mechanism is an interesting wrinkle. It may not have worked through this winter, but hopefully they've got enough diagnostic data from the rover before it died to workout
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Of course, if you're Elon Musk's secret Slashdot account, you could spend a few hundred megabucks of your own money to prove NASA wrong. Your money, your choice.
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A fly over from Ingenuity perhaps?
If it's dead... they may never know...
Try a Ballon (Score:5, Funny)
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Just a pity there is a local vacuum...
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Just a pity there is a local vacuum...
What, like a Dyson?</clinton>
Mars has a thin atmosphere, but it is enough to fly a helicopter [space.com] in.
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It's not dead. (Score:5, Funny)
It's resting -- tired and shagged out following a long squawk. Maybe pining for the fjords.
(For you youngsters, Monty Python Dead Parrot [youtube.com])
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Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
(pause)
Owner: Well, I'd better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek behind the counter) Sorry squire, I've had a look 'round the back of the shop, and uh, we're right out of parrots.
Mr. Praline: I see. I see, I get the picture.
Owner: (pause) I got a slug.
"I bought a Mars rover on Alibaba" (Score:4, Funny)
The specs looked good, but it conked out a week after the guarantee ran out, and I can't get anyone to come and repair it FFS.
Thats what I hate (Score:2)
about turn based games. Next time we should have a set time limit or you forfeit.
Capacitors (Score:3)
The faked capacitors all burst and leaked.
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No sarcasm was used in the composition of this post.
Re: Rovers (Score:2)
The riffle butting happens all over the world, mostly with armies under the command of oppressive regimes.
You've come.. (Score:2)
Why I can envision the mail exchange with support? (Score:2)
May 22: My rover is broken, please look into it.
Support: It has entered a planned hibernation period.
September 22: My rover still doesn't move.
Support: The hibernation period is not over yet, we contact you when the solar minimum is over.
February 23: The minimum is over, what the hell is going on???
Support: Sorry, your warranty period is over, have a nice day.
No real shame in it (Score:3)
I don't see any "shame" in saying "after X days, our rover has developed a fault". I mean goodness sake, this is millions of miles away, and on another frikkin planet. I think you can be excused a few defects.
I for one would respect China far more for admitting this than for staying silent. That perception affects how I receive any information from China - so even if they had made some awesome discovery on Mars, I'd still be waiting for NASA/ESA to verify it because China is so untrustworthy.
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China discovers life on Mars! (Score:2)
From wikipedia:
So obviously the Chinese rover has attracted horny hexapods who have covered the solar panels with egg masses and sex debris
Might have Forgot Something (Score:2)
Better put in a RMA (Score:2)
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The real story is the inability to admit failure.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Here is a real achievement that they've accomplished, putting a rover successfully on Mars. Problems and failures happen in that harsh environment. For the west, we use it as a learning experience. We run the data to find out what went wrong, so that it can be corrected for the future. But the Communist Chinese cannot allow anything close to "failure" or "setback" enter their vocabulary. That's why we haven't heard anything about it.
That insecurity is going to cost them in the long run.
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That's the confusing thing though. it's not a failure. The rover had a life expectancy of three months and survived for a year, completing all of it's objectives.
If anything, not saying anything about the rover in fear of perceived failure hurts them more because people begin to forget about it vs announcing that the mission is officially over and tout the successes that it had.
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I for one would respect China far more for admitting this than for staying silent. That perception affects how I receive any information from China - so even if they had made some awesome discovery on Mars, I'd still be waiting for NASA/ESA to verify it because China is so untrustworthy.
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Sad. But still way better than Europe's Beagle 2. (Score:1)
NCAA March Madness (Score:2)
Nothing much is moving here for the next month or so either.