Zhurong Lander/Rover, Surface Operations at Utopia Planitia Options

[Huguet]

Zhurong was supposed to revive from hibernation in December 2022. Possibly, RIP?

I think so Bill, for me it didn't get enough power from the dust panels to continue working... I believe future missions must have a more active way of cleaning it..

Here some pictures released of the parachute test made on Earth... and the pics we have from Mars for comparation...

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Bill Harris]

It was still an absolutely brilliant mission. Especially considering it was China's first Mars landing.

--Bill

[Huguet]

Spoke too soon. Here is a bit of news:
https://moon.bao.ac.cn/web/enmanager/dtxw?detailId=821602
"The orbiter is carrying out remote sensing exploration of the global coverage of Mars. The current imaging area is mainly concentrated in the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere of Mars. The mission team will use the orbiter as much as possible to continue to monitor local weather conditions."
Phil

Probably by september 2022 they already know that Zhurong would not be capable of continuing operations. That's why they change Tianwen purpose.

[climber]

Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of Tianwen-1 mission, tells CCTV that dust accumulation is the probable cause of the rover not waking. 20% dust coverage will cause issue, 30% requires strongest lighting conditions to reawaken, while 40% means game over, never waking up.
Here is the tweeter link from Andrew Jones : https://twitter.com/aj_fi/status/1650725085...-abbFuRwORcPCqQ
He added « Good to have an official update. So, this is not conclusive. Hard to gauge dust coverage on Zhurong's solar panels from orbit. Could still wake up, with summer solstice but until July 12 . If it can wake up, it can use active dust cleaning measures. It could already be doomed tho »

[vikingmars]

Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of Tianwen-1 mission, tells CCTV that dust accumulation is the probable cause of the rover not waking. 20% dust coverage will cause issue, 30% requires strongest lighting conditions to reawaken, while 40% means game over, never waking up.
Here is the tweeter link from Andrew Jones : https://twitter.com/aj_fi/status/1650725085...-abbFuRwORcPCqQ
He added « Good to have an official update. So, this is not conclusive. Hard to gauge dust coverage on Zhurong's solar panels from orbit. Could still wake up, with summer solstice but until July 12 . If it can wake up, it can use active dust cleaning measures. It could already be doomed tho »

Thank you very much Climber for the news

[Hungry4info]

About 800 images from Zhurong have been released and converted into .jpg format, though I haven't quite figured out where to get them yet.
https://twitter.com/CNSpaceflight/status/1652185114078769152

[tanjent]

Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of Tianwen-1 mission, tells CCTV that dust accumulation is the probable cause of the rover not waking. 20% dust coverage will cause issue, 30% requires strongest lighting conditions to reawaken, while 40% means game over, never waking up.
Here is the tweeter link from Andrew Jones : https://twitter.com/aj_fi/status/1650725085...-abbFuRwORcPCqQ
He added « Good to have an official update. So, this is not conclusive. Hard to gauge dust coverage on Zhurong's solar panels from orbit. Could still wake up, with summer solstice but until July 12 . If it can wake up, it can use active dust cleaning measures. It could already be doomed tho »

Even if it is too late to use them, it would be interesting to know what kind of active measures were considered.

[djellison]

I've posted details of the 800 image drop here : https://deepspace.social/@doug_ellison/110291433371702521

I literally ended up using a mouse-record-and-replay tool to hit 'download' on each of the 5 products per page, then hitting next page and let it repeat for ~160 pages

Seems like ~14 360 mosaics over ~5 months were taken - with 3x1 mosaics for drive direction for a few steps in-between each 360

Attached - a bunch of them at ~1/3rd res - full size I've posted here : https://dougellison.smugmug.com/Zhurong-Panoramas/

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Hungry4info]

Outstanding work! I don't suppose you could be persuaded to post the entirety of it somewhere accessible for the rest of us?

[tanjent]

I guess they don't come with time stamps, but the first one shows the lander up close, so likely the order in which they were acquired matches the order in which Doug has posted them. In 53139 it looks as though there is a second man-made object on the horizon, to the far left. It seems to have some rigidity, so unlikely to be a parachute. What then could it be?

[Explorer1]

That's the backshell of the lander. A better image is here.

[djellison]

I guess they don't come with time stamps,

If you look at the file names on the Smugmug page you'll see I pruned the start of the file name for the first image of the mosaic - but it contains a time stamp

i.e.

SCI_N_20210603090152_20210603090152_00020_A Panorama.jpg

That's June 3rd 2021 at 09:01:52

[Phil Stooke]

Thanks for all this, Doug. Naturally I couldn't pass up the chance to make a circular version. The first one, for now.

Phil

[Glevesque]

I've posted details of the 800 image drop here : https://deepspace.social/@doug_ellison/110291433371702521

I literally ended up using a mouse-record-and-replay tool to hit 'download' on each of the 5 products per page, then hitting next page and let it repeat for ~160 pages

Seems like ~14 360 mosaics over ~5 months were taken - with 3x1 mosaics for drive direction for a few steps in-between each 360

Attached - a bunch of them at ~1/3rd res - full size I've posted here : https://dougellison.smugmug.com/Zhurong-Panoramas/

good job

[Phil Stooke]

Here is the panorama for --- in circular form.

Phil