Posted on 06/27/2007 3:55:05 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
A major dust storm has developed on the red planet, blocking sunlight and prompting Mars mission managers to keep a close eye on it, SPACE.com has learned.
It is not known how large the storm might grow, but already it is thousands of miles across. If it balloons, as dust storms have done in the past, it could hamper operations of NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
For now, officials don't think the storm will threaten rover operations, however. In fact, the windy conditions on the planet have blown off large amounts of dust from the rovers' solar arrays, giving them more power. The power boost may lend a helping hand to the Opportunity rover, should officials decide to send it into Victoria Crater.
"We've been watching this storm for about six days now," said Steven Squyres of Cornell University, who is the lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover Project. "It's not unheard of for Martian dust storms to cover half the planet, and this one is now a regional storm."
Squyres wasn't certain of the storm's exact size, but said it appears to be thousands of miles in diameter and "ain't no little hurricane." In fact, "it's one of the most sunlight-blocking storms we've seen on Mars," he said.
According to reports from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which Squyres deemed as Mars' weather satellite, the storm has grown in size and is lifting up dust about 560 miles (900 KM) east of Opportunity, which is presently at Meridiani Planum. "The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team is watching this closely, because we worry about dust in the atmosphere obscuring the sunlight," Squyres said.
Experienced amateur astronomers have spotted the storm with large telescopes. Paul Maxson of Phoenix, Arizona, was one of the first to image the storm.
Dust storms on Mars occur regularly, but seldom do they grow beyond regional proportions. A storm in 2001, however, engulfed the entire planet in red dust.
"If the storm continues to get worse, it could cut into our activities," Squyres said. One of those activities, should the team decide it's not too risky, could be the descent of Opportunity into the massive Victoria Crater. A press conference is planned for Thursday to discuss the decision.
"The upshot of all this wind is that the arrays are so clean that the dust is insignificant right now," he said. "But this is Mars, and we can't predict the weather-we can only to react to it."
Diana Blaney, the deputy project manager for the Mars exploration rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said dust levels can significantly impact the rovers' missions. "When big dust storms like this come along, they decrease the energy the rovers can work with," Blaney said.
JPL spokesperson Guy Webster said Mars mission managers will be monitoring the storm's progress and how it may affect the planned descent into the crater. "They've really been paying attention to the storm and been getting regular reports of its progress," Webster said.
A dust storm caught by amateur astronomer Paul Maxso of Phoenix, Arizona. On June 23 (top), the storm appears as a bright red blemish on the visible light "RGB" image, just northeast of the planet's center. On June 26, the storm has more than quadrupled in size and is a large blotch occupying the northeastern region of Mars on the "RGB" image. Credit: Paul Maxson
ML/NJ
Could this be the end for our amazing rovers?
spaceflightnow.com
Laser tool for next Mars rover ready for testing
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: June 25, 2007
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - Mars mission Job One: Get there. Job Two: Find rocks and zap them with your laser tool. Now learn the nature of the debris by spectrographically analyzing the ensuing dust and fragments. It’s every kid’s dream, vaporizing pebbles on other planets, and thanks to a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory, it’s going to happen.
When the JPL-NASA Mars Science Laboratory rover launches in 2009, it will carry this combination laser-telescope unit and enable the gadget-packed rover to know a great deal about rocks in its general vicinity. The ChemCam package includes a mast unit, projecting above the rover with a laser and telescope, and a body unit, the brains of the beast, with three spectrographs and the instrument controls.
The engineering model of ChemCam’s mast unit, fresh from Thales Laser and Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements (CESR) in France, is undergoing rigorous testing at Los Alamos. A team of six French experts is checking out the mast unit this week and making sure that it is properly connected with the rest of the instrument, built at Los Alamos. This fall the entire instrument will be shipped to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where more tests will take place and additional equipment will be added.
“We’re pioneering a new technique for exploring Mars. It’s really exciting to see the whole thing come together,” said Roger Wiens, project lead and a Los Alamos scientist.
The ChemCam laser emits very short pulses of 7 nanoseconds, through a small telescope that focuses the beam to a spot where the power density exceeds 10 megawatts per square millimeter, producing a plasma of vaporized material from the target rock. The unit operates on targets at distances between 4 and 30 feet. The unit also contains a camera to take extreme close-up pictures of the targets to show geologic context for each sample. The telescope and electronics were built by CESR, a research institute in Toulouse, France. The mast unit was funded by CNES, the French Space Agency. The full ChemCam flight model will be delivered to JPL in Spring of 2008.
Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Mars Science Laboratory is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s habitability.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
Where’s FEMA? Bush doesn’t care about Martians.
The dust devils help clean the dust and sand and such off the solar panels , as long as they can communicate and move around, they'll go 'til they run out of battery life..
NASA's Mars rover Spirit catches a bevy of dust devils race across Gusev Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
I’m just wondering if this could grow into one of the planet engulfing dust storms.
Let me get my hand-vac and I’ll be on my way. This thing has enough suction to hold a bowling ball aloft. Now, how do I get to Mars?
Maybe Gore should go up there and fix it. Ahhhhhh, aren’t dreams wonderful?
Apparently, the Mars rover landed in Odessa, Texas.
It has happened before, I was looking for some other pics, I’ll pop ‘em up when I find some.
Treaty obligations with the Romulins won’t let us send Al off Earth anymore.
I keep an eye on the rover page also the MRO should get some good pics in coming days.
Any truth to the rumor that the two rovers are packing themselves onto a jalopy and headin’ to California?
I hope the rovers can get some pictures of it coming in though.
A technician makes checks on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Tuesday, June 26, 2007. The Phoenix spacecraft is scheduled for launch on a Delta II rocket Aug. 3. It will land in the arctic region of Mars. (AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove)
This image is a composite mosaic of four polar views of Mars, taken at midnight, 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. local Martian time taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft and released October 16, 2006. The European Space Agency is looking for volunteers to make a pretend trip to Mars. REUTERS/NASA/JPL/MSSS/Handout
It could. It might. It might not. If it does, would Mars grow cooler?
Man! That is incredible! What an age to live in!
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