Dust storm on Mars may finally spell doom for Rovers...

[SaveElmer]

A giant dust storm that now covers nearly the entire southern hemisphere of Mars could permanently jeopardize the future of the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, officials told SPACE.com today.

The new and potentially bleak outlook is a stark shift from the prognosis earlier this week. Further compounding the threat to the rovers, a second large dust storm has recently appeared on the Red Planet.

The first and largest dusty squall has reduced direct sunlight to Mars' surface by nearly 99 percent, an unprecedented threat for the solar-powered rovers. If the storm keeps up and thickens with even more dust, officials fear the rovers' batteries may empty and silence the robotic explorers forever.

"This is a scary storm," said Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at Texas A&M University and member of the rover team. "If it gets any worse, we'll enter into some uncharted territory. There's been a lot of discussion about what we're going to do if (the rovers) don't have enough power to run during the day."

The storm, first reported by SPACE.com, hasn't yet reached global proportions, but the dust levels are the thickest the rovers have ever experienced. Lemmon said the conditions rival Mars' global storm of 2001 and another in 1971.

"This thing has been breaking records the past few days. The sun is 100 times fainter than normal," he said. "We're hoping for a big break in the storm soon, but that's just a hope."

http://www.space.com/news/070705_dusty_rovers.html

[Canuckistanian]

1. Wow, it's like the Weather Channel from another planet

Mother Nature is a bitch, no matter where in the Solar System.

[DS1]

2. There's Global Warming on Mars, too?

:cry: