Mars isn’t the only planet with dust storms!
Published on Feb 28, 2007 at 1:45 pm.
No Comments.
Filed under Earth, Mars, space exploration.
Saturday, I was at a convention in Dallas. That afternoon, I came out of a session and looked out the window. During the day, the wind had been increasing. Well, by the afternoon, there were whitecaps in the hotel swimming pool! But, more disturbing was the fact that the Sun was orange and it was about 3pm! A little later, I went with a friend up to the top floor of the hotel to catch some food. Looking out the window, you could see the dust clouds everywhere. Yes, we were having a dust storm. The wind had picked up dust from out in West Texas and was dumping it in the Dallas and Fort Worth area. My care was covered in dust when I got ready to leave, and there was dust in my eyes (I washed them out when I got home, they were so irritated). Above, I’ve posted a satellite photo of the dust storm.
As annoying as this was, it is nothing like dust storms on Mars. There, the dust clouds reach many miles into the air, and turn day into deep twilight. Martian dust storms typically last longer than Earth dust storms. It is not out of the question for Martian dust storms to last days, weeks, and even months. Such dust storms seriously impact solar collectors on the surface. That has been detrimental to the rovers that we’ve got there, and it is something that is a major concern for any future manned missions. The dust collects on surfaces, and that has been bad for the rovers, too. Future landers may have some system to remove the dust from the solar cells. Currently, all NASA can do is try to position the rovers in the past of dust devils hoping to blow the accumulated dust off. So far, that has worked. But, we need something better if we have humans relying on solar power.
Martian dust is also much finer than the dust that we get in dust storms on Earth. This very fine dust gets into everything. That can be detrimental to equipment: dust in bearings, dust in gears, dust in electronics, etc. But, it is also a hazard to humans. Dust can accumulate in the lungs, and the really find dust can do damage. We don’t really know much about the Martian dust, so we do not know how much of a hazard that might be. It is obviously something else to worry about. Astronauts moving around outside a habitat will get covered in dust, and they will bring it back inside. Ways to limit that need to be explored.
But, for now, I am at least happy that this dust storm is past.
-Astroprof
(Image courtesy of NASA)
