China's National Space Administration has been trying to contact the Zhurong Mars rover, but so far unsuccessfully. The lander went into hibernation over six months ago in an attempt to survive the Martian winter.

The mission team had expected the rover to resume operations around December 26th when the planet's northern hemisphere entered spring and the environment improved. However, engineers still have not established contact with the rover.

The Zhurong lander's main mission lasted three months, but it went on to work for roughly a year, covering a distance of about 2km. With the rover's instruments, scientists were able to detect evidence of two major floods that occurred on the Red Planet millions of years ago.