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Dust storm delays Mars rover crater entry |
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14:10, July 04, 2007 |
A giant dust storm brewing for more than a week on Mars has become worse, so the Mars rover Opportunity's crater exploration has to be delayed by several days,NASA announced on Tuesday.
Because the rover depends on solar energy for survival, and thedust is partially blocking the sun, the surface operations of Opportunity is severely affected.
"We are keeping an eye on this as we go forward, but our entry into Victoria Crater will be delayed until no sooner than July 13," said John Callas, project manager of the Mars Exploration Rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The storm, the most severe one yet to hit the rovers, is expected to continue for at least another week. Opportunity is perched near "Duck Bay", and rover scientists had planned to let it descend into Victoria Crater between July 7 and July 9, but operations were scaled back on Saturday, June 30, to conserve power.
Pictures from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the stormis regional in extent, and includes several local areas of especially high dust activity.
The storm has been moving eastward and toward mid-latitudes, and is now also causing an increase in atmospheric dust at Spirit's location, on the opposite side of the planet at Gusev Crater. Dust levels at Gusev remain much lower than at the Opportunity site, however.
Source: Xinhua
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