Dust storm affecting Mars rovers
A powerful dust storm on Mars has worsened and is affecting the twin rovers' operations on the Red Planet, mission scientists say. The storm, which has been brewing for a week, has partially blocked the sun. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have solar panels, rely on sunlight to charge their batteries.
Scientists maintain that the robots, which are used to operating at low power levels, are not in danger.
"The storm is affecting both rovers and reducing the power levels on Opportunity," project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement posted Tuesday on the space agency's Web site.
Solar array energy on Opportunity dropped from 765 watt-hours to 402 watt-hours as dust levels increased over the past week. The rover scaled back operations on June 30 to conserve energy.
