The Zhurong rover sent by China to Mars has not yet emerged from the planned hibernation stage, Zhang Rongqiao, the coordinator of China’s planetary exploration program, said on Tuesday, as quoted by DPA and Agerpres.

The rover was supposed to come out of hibernation four months ago, but it doesn’t have enough energy to activate its instruments because its solar cells are covered in too much dust.

Chinese engineers expected to encounter this problem, but the amount of settled dust is about 20% more than expected. If this excess dust reaches 30%, the rover will have to wait until the Martian summer to reactivate.

“If the dust coverage level exceeds 40%, the rover will not wake up,” Zhang Rongqiao explained.

The rover, named after the Chinese god of fire, went into hibernation in May 2022 to deal with the cold winter on the Red Planet.

A Chinese rover reached Mars almost two years ago

Zhurong was supposed to come out of hibernation back in December, when its power level exceeded 140 watts and the battery temperature rose above -15 degrees Celsius, but the flight control team did not receive any signal from the rover.

The rover landed in the Utopia Planitia region in May 2021, making China the second country after the United States to send a rover to the surface of Mars.

The Zhurong rover mission is already successful as all its milestones have been achieved.

The rover traveled approximately 2 kilometers on the Martian surface, made a number of important scientific discoveries, such as traces of ancient water accumulations, and operated 3 months beyond the mission’s planned time.