China’s Zhurong rover appears to still be snoozing since entering into hibernation mode a little less than a year ago. The Chinese robot was supposed to wake up in December but recent images captured by a NASA orbiter reveal that the rover hasn’t moved from its position on the Martian surface for months.
The images, released on Tuesday, were captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The side-by-side cutout included three separate images taken on March 11, 2022, September 8, 2022, and the most recent one captured on February 7, 2023.
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The first frame shows the rover as a bluish, hazy blob at the top of the image, when the rover was still active. The second and third images show Zhurong farther down the frame resting next to a crater. The rover has not moved from this spot since entering into hibernation mode—a low power safe mode—in May 2022. Although Zhurong’s hibernation was part of the plan to avoid the harsh Martian winter season, the rover was scheduled to autonomously resume its activities in late December at the start of Martian spring.
Read more: Gizmodo
