NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers might be stealing all the limelight on Mars, China’s Zhurong rover is also not far. The Chinese rover was built for a three-month mission, and recently the China National Space Administration has announced that the rover has outlived its expected life. The rover has finished all the tasks it was expected to perform.
Zhurong to take a break
However, this might not be the end of the line for Zhurong. It’s earned “an extended expedition toward an ancient coastal area.” The rover reached the Red Planet in May, making China only the second country to land a rover on Martian soil. It is a part of the CNSA’s Tianwen-1 mission, which comprises a lander and an orbiter. The rover has been investigating Utopia Planitia, a plains region that NASA explored in the 1970s.
Zhurong has almost covered around 900 meters on Mars, extracting data, clicking images, and leaving wheel tracks as it passes a region. The rover might not be functional between mid-September and late October due to an expected communications disruption. The disruption happens frequently as the Sun gets in between Earth and Mars. The rover will get back to basics after that.
China is on way to achieve greatness
China has pushing hard to achieve its interstellar ambitions. Recently, Chinese researchers proposed developing an asteroid strike protection system. It involves sending 20 rockets from the country to practice diverting potential threatening space rocks away from Earth. Scientists at China’s National Space Science Centre learned through simulations that 23 Long March 5 rockets that weigh 900 tonnes when hit simultaneously could divert an asteroid from its original path by almost 9,000 km.
NASA also has a similar system in the works called HAMMER (Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response). However, this approach is costlier and will require 25 years prior warning before the collision, while China’s system will only need a warning 10 years before the collision.
Back in June, China also sent its first crewed mission to its new space station. Three astronauts were ferried in the first of four crewed space flights. The mission aims to complete the construction of its space station by end of 2022.
