Saturday, July 21, 2007

NY Times has Mars Weather Report

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/meanwhile-the-weather-on-mars/

After a lull, the storm has kicked up again, fiercer than before. Now 99 percent of the direct sunlight has been blocked out. That’s bad, because the rovers rely on power from solar panels. Before the storm, Opportunity’s panels were generating about 800 watt-hours of energy a day. On Wednesday, that dropped to 130 watt-hours, which is barely enough for the rover’s minimum needs. Energy generation did rise to 190 watt-hours on Thursday, but mission managers want to err on the side of caution. Hence, the command to stay quiet and conserve energy.
“It’s a guarded situation,” said John Callas, the project manager for the rovers. “Right now we have to trust the rover to take care of itself for the next three days.”
The storm is so large that it is also affecting Spirit, all the way on the other side of the planet. The dust is not as thick there yet, but the skies there are darkening. Spirit’s solar panels are generating about 360 watt-hours of energy a day, a drop of more than half.

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Everyone's watching those spunky little bots digging around on Mars! They sure have sent back some great pics!

Though I don't think NASA planned for an angel, perhaps Michael, but probably one of the ones not mentioned by name in the Bible, whipping out his Oreck to give the dusty planet a good hoovering.

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