Ever since we’ve been following that water, chasing it underground and into the distant past. In the early 20th century, charismatic American astronomer Percival Lowell had the world briefly enthralled with his “observations” of canals carrying irrigation water for a thirsty civilization, until better images revealed them to be mirages. They show us that whatever it is in nature that rouses us to wonder, triggers awe and appreciation of beauty, it is not limited to our home planet. From a sheer aesthetic perspective, these images continue to astound. We’ve seen incredible views of eroded canyons and meandering riverbeds, vast fields of curvaceous dunes, interlaced patterns of ice and rock looking almost biological in their filigreed complexity, and an endless menagerie of impact crater shapes and styles. Whole new aspects of Mars are revealed when we see the planet with this clarity and detail, and with the luxury of being able to pick the right targets on a planet that has become increasingly known to us. And, crucially, its great longevity has allowed us to see many subtle - and a few dramatic - ways in which those landscapes change over time. This amazing telescopic camera can spot features as small as a picnic table.Ĭombined with imaging spectroscopy, which determines the make-up of surface materials, HiRISE has illustrated the stories of countless, highly varied Martian landscapes. Among its six main scientific instruments, all of which are still working, the standout has been HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. That’s not bad for a spacecraft that had a primary mission lifetime of 2 years. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) completed 10 years in orbit around Mars. “Tree”-like tendrils of dark sand appear on Martian dunes due to the sublimation of carbon dioxide frost. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has changed the way we think about the Red Planet. Powered by solar energy, Zhurong also looked for signs of ancient life, including any subsurface water and ice, using a ground-penetrating radar.Īside from Zhurong, two other robotic rovers have been operating on Mars – NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity, with the former roaming the planet’s surface for more than two years and the latter for about a decade.It’s easy, but wrong, to take for granted a mission that’s still going strong after a decade. The 240kg (530-pound) Zhurong, which has six scientific instruments including a high-resolution topography camera, was tasked with studying the planet’s surface soil and atmosphere after landing with no mishap in May 2021. ![]() If it can wake up, it can use active dust cleaning measures. ![]() Could still wake up, with summer solstice but until July 12. Hard to gauge dust coverage on Zhurong's solar panels from orbit. It could already be doomed though,” he added. “If it can wake up, it can use active dust cleaning measures. Hard to gauge dust coverage on Zhurong’s solar panels from orbit,” Jones said in a tweet, noting that it could still wake up with the summer solstice on Mars in July. The camera is the most powerful ever sent to another planet.Īndrew Jones, a reporter focused on China’s space programme, tweeted on Tuesday that an official update on the rover’s status was welcome, though it was not conclusive that the Zhurong might never reawaken. Images beamed back from Mars showed the Chinese rover had not changed its position since at least between Septemand February 7, 2023, according to the University of Arizona, which manages a high-resolution camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The Zhurong had explored the Martian surface for 358 days and travelled for 1,921 metres (2,100 yards), Zhang said, far exceeding its original mission time span of three months. The fully robotic Zhurong, named after a mythical Chinese god of fire, was expected to have woken up in December after entering a planned sleep mode in May 2022 as falling solar radiation due to the advent of winter on Mars cut its power generation.Ī pile-up of dust most likely affected power generation and the rover’s ability to wake up, China’s state television CCTV reported on Tuesday, quoting Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China’s Mars exploration programme. ![]() China’s Mars rover, which has been in longer-than-expected hibernation on the red planet since May 2022, has likely suffered excessive accumulation of sand and dust, its mission designer has said, breaking months of silence about the status of the space vehicle.
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