NASA Rovers Trapped in Mars Dust Storm
Posted on: Friday, 20 July 2007, 15:10 CDT
A pair of NASA rovers surveying the surface of Mars lost most of their power Friday as a massive dust storm spread across a portion of the planet.
Officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in a release on the organization's Web site, said that the storm may ultimately end the rovers' mission on Mars as their equipment is ill-equipped to deal with such treacherous conditions.
A statement from the U.S. space agency said that signs of the dust storm had been present for nearly a month prior to Friday.
With the dust storm blocking out 99 percent of the sunlight to Mars' surface, the solar-powered rovers are dangerously low on power.
The lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover Project said that with the storm expected to continue anywhere from days to weeks, NASA officials are left to hope that the Opportunity and Spirit rovers will survive.
This is, I think, one of the most significant challenges we've faced over this entire mission, mission head Steve Squyres said. The nature of the risk is well understood but the magnitude of the risk is not. We simply don't know what's going to happen next.
Source: United Press International
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