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Astronomers have spotted several localized dust storms brewing in Mars's northern hemisphere. These are currently combining to form a regional dust storm. They could further bloom into a global storm, affecting communications and solar power generation for the three upcoming Mars missions.
Europe's Mars Express mission (along with its Beagle 2 lander) arrives on December 24th (US local time) and NASA's first Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, will land on January 3rd. The second rover, Opportunity, follows on January 24th.
Dust storms have affected missions before. Back in 1971, the US Mariner 9 orbiter and Soviet Mars 2 and 3 landers were faced with a global dust storm. Being completely automated, the Soviet landers catapulted themselves into the storm, crashing immediately due to the interferance. Mars 3 send back some darkened (mostly useless) photos. Meanwhile, Mariner 9 was able to insert into an orbit and wait out the storm, later snapping 7,329 total images, a record amount at the time.
Stay tuned to MarsNews.com for the latest on these important developments.
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Posted by jburk at December 16, 2003 12:00 PM
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