Brutal Martian Sandstorm Blocks Out Sun

These images show the simulated view of the sun as seen from NASA's Mars rover, Opportunity. It is now engulfed in a brutal and huge sandstorm that is currently encompassing an estimated 14 million square miles of the Martian surface. That's nearly 4 times the size of the United States.

These types of storms are rare on Mars, but not unheard of. Opportunity has had to weather similar storms before and is expected to survive this one. Originally, NASA had hoped that the Mars Exploration Rover Program, with the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity, would last a matter of months before the rovers became inoperable. But now, approaching 14 years of operation, the program has vastly surpassed any of their best and wildest hopes.

According to NASA engineers, the biggest danger is keeping the heaters working so that systems don't completely freeze up during the storm blackout. Temperatures on Mars have been known to get as low as -245 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the solar panels will not be able to re-energize the batteries until the sun is able to shine through again, the rovers will have to shut down all but the barest of necessities to survive. In this case, nothing will be as important as the heaters, which consume more power than most other on-board systems. Storms of this size and strength on Mars usually last weeks, or even months. Hopefully, battery power will outlast the storm.

Here is what NASA had to say about the above images:

"Science operations for NASA's Opportunity rover have been temporarily suspended as it waits out a dust storm on Mars. This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA's Opportunity rover's point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity's current view in the global dust storm (June 2018). The left starts with a blindingly bright mid-afternoon sky, with the sun appearing bigger because of brightness. The right shows the Sun so obscured by dust it looks like a pinprick. Each frame corresponds to a tau value, or measure of opacity: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Story Credit: NASA
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU