China News Agency, Beijing, May 20 (Ma Shuisha Geng Yan) The reporter learned from the China National Space Administration on the 20th that the inspection area of ​​the "Zhurong" Mars rover has recently experienced an obvious sandstorm process.

In order to cope with the extremely low temperature environment and sand and dust weather in the inspection area, the rover has switched to sleep mode on May 18. It is expected that around December, the inspection area will enter the early spring season and resume normal work after the environmental conditions improve.

　　The Tianwen-1 mission team obtained medium-resolution images through the orbiter and found that the inspection area of ​​the "Zhurong" Mars rover experienced an obvious sandstorm process.

Scientists compared the typical landforms (especially the edge of the impact crater) in the 120-meter resolution images of the "Zhurong" inspection area on March 16 and April 30, combined with the recent rover telemetry information. It can be judged that the local area is experiencing strong sand and dust weather.

　　At present, the "Zhurong" Mars rover inspection area has entered winter. The maximum temperature during the day drops below minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the minimum temperature at night drops to minus 100 degrees Celsius. By mid-July, around the Martian solstice, the temperature will further drop.

　　In order to cope with the reduction of the solar wing's power generation capacity caused by the dusty weather and the extremely low ambient temperature in winter, according to the design plan and flight control strategy, the "Zhurong" rover went into sleep mode on May 18.

It is expected that around December this year, the Mars rover inspection area will enter the early spring season, and it will resume normal work after the environmental conditions improve.

　　In addition, the orbiter is implementing remote sensing exploration of the global coverage of Mars, and the current imaging area is mainly concentrated in the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere of Mars.

The mission team will continue to monitor local weather conditions using the orbiter whenever possible.

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