We’re traveling to outlying planets and into deep space this week, but Mars merits some attention first: It’s under a blanket of dirt! A couple of months ago, dust storms here and there began clouding the Martian skies—all of them, much to the worry and chagrin of scientists on Earth. How will they be able to communicate with their rovers?
Let’s take them one at a time. The Curiosity rover is nuclear-powered—running off a Plutonium Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, to be specific—so dark skies or not, it has the fuel to keep itself going. The Mars Exploration Rover called Opportunity, though, is completely solar-powered. If there is no sunlight, the rover cannot operate or communicate.
Opportunity has been shrouded in darkness for so long that it went into a low-power safe mode some weeks ago, and according to NASA if the rover can’t suck up enough energy to recharge, there’s a chance it might not be able to wake up. For now the Opportunity team is anxious and waiting for this global dust storm to clear, while Martian atmospheric scientists and climatologists are watching this great swirl of dust to better understand how the storms got so big so fast in the first place.
Eager to gaze into the great expanse of space? Check out Wired’s full collection of photos here.
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Source:WIRED
