NASA
Mars before and after a dust storm
Dust can even prevail for months and poses a significant threat to robotic missions. A new study suggests a source of the problem.
Dust storms plague Mars every 5 and a half years. On Mars, time runs differently, and this time is equivalent to 3 years.
For decades, researchers have been looking for causes of this problem, which delays space missions, explains .
This is because the storm generates electrostatic charges which can interfere with your electronics or cause dust to build up on your solar panels, preventing them from getting enough power to remain operational.
Now, a new led by a team of scientists at the University of Colorado suggests that relatively warm and sunny days can trigger the biggest storms.
“Dust storms have a significant effect on rovers e landers on Mars, not to mention what will happen during future manned missions to Mars. This dust is very light and sticks to everything”, says the main author, Heshani Pieris.
And dust storms have already been causing damage: they were responsible for the loss of rover Opportunity in 2018 and the lander InSight last year.
“Even if the wind pressure is not enough to knock down the equipment, these dust grains can gain a lot of speed and target astronauts and their equipment,” added co-author Paul Hayne.
“We need to understand what causes some of the smaller or regional storms to develop into global-scale storms. We don’t even fully understand basic physics of how dust storms start at the surface,” he added.
The authors turned to NASA’s (MRO) to find that about 68% of major storms on the planet were preceded by a sharp increase in surface temperatureswhich led to the raising of dust.
“When the surface heats up, the The layer of atmosphere above becomes buoyant and can rise, taking the dust with it. This study is not the end all be all in predicting storms on Mars. But we hope it’s a step in the right direction,” said Pieris.
