China's Zhurong Rover Discovers Liquid Water and Faces Possible Shutdown

China's Zhurong Rover on Mars has not shown any signs of activity since it entered hibernation mode due to a dust storm in May 2022. The rover's chief designer, Zhang Rongqiao, believes that the lack of sunlight reaching the minimum level for power generation is the reason for the rover's inactivity. The most likely possibility is that an unpredictable accumulation of Martian dust has led to a decrease in the power generation capacity, which is insufficient to wake it up. Changing seasons on the red planet are expected to strengthen the Sun's rays at Zhurong's location in the near future, which could bring power levels back within operational norms. Tianwen-2, the next deep space mission in the Tianwen series, is expected to launch in May 2025 and will be a sample return mission from a near-Earth asteroid named 2016 HO3.