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NASA's Mars Curiosity robot noticed early this summer's monster dust storm, but not the way you'd expect.
The storm was spotted for the first time by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite on May 30, during an event located near Perseverance Valley, a landform explored by the Agency's rover Opportunity.
The dust storm grew rapidly over the next few days, as Curiosity's observations showed. Curiosity's home is the 154-mile wide Gale crater, located on the other side of the planet, at Perseverance Valley, but has seen signs of a storm on June 5th. [Mars Dust Storm 2018: What It Means for Opportunity Rover]
These signs were temperature readings, made by sensors on a vehicle's bridge engine, mission team members said. This engine feeds the lid of a funnel that directs Curiosity drill powder samples into its onboard chemistry lab instrument, called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).
"All of my maps show the effect of dust storm on the actuator as it is exposed on the moving bridge," said Benito Prats, an electromechanical engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Suddenly, I saw the daytime temperature drop very quickly."
A look at the temperature measurement motor (or actuator) on the Curiosity Bridge, which activates the lid on a funnel that helps direct samples from the rover drill to its SAM instrument (Sensor Analysis at Mars ). This is a still image of a short video taken in January 2011 in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California by Oren Sheinman, Chief Engineer at SAM, before Curiosity is sent to the Space Center. Kennedy in Florida.
Credit: Benito Prats / Molly Wasser / NASA
The night temperature has remained abnormally high, as during the great Martian dust storms: although all the dust in the air blocks daylight, it also prevents infrared rays from escaping at night. the sun sets.
The storm continued to grow and finally surrounded the planet on June 20th. Its intensity plunged the Valley of Perseverance into perpetual darkness, blocking so much sunlight that Opportunity, powered by solar energy, could no longer recharge its batteries. The rover the size of a golf cart, which has been exploring Mars since January 2004, has not appeared since June 10th.
The engine temperature measurements helped the Curiosity team monitor the storm (which she also did using the onboard weather station of the rover). And Prats combined dust storm data with historical engine readings, to predict when the storm could begin to dissipate.
"On the ground 2125 (July 28), I noticed a linear trend," said Prats, "so I said, okay, I can predict that the soil 2.180 (September 23 is going to be when we are going out of the dust storm and the temperature will come back to normal even though I later updated it for soil 2,175 (Sept. 18). "
(A soil is a Martian day, which lasts about 40 minutes more than a terrestrial day.) The soil numbers referenced by Prats are the number of Martian days since the landing of Curiosity on the Red Planet on August 5 2012.)
This prediction proved accurate: dust levels in the Gale Crater were back to normal on Sept. 18, according to engine measurements, NASA officials said.
Curiosity was not affected by the storm because it uses nuclear rather than solar energy. (Curiosity is currently being sidelined by a problem with his memory).
The skies above Perseverance Valley have also cleared. Indeed, Opportunity handlers have stepped up their efforts to salute the silent rover of September 11, beginning a 45 – day campaign of active listening. If this effort fails, the team will evaluate its next steps, NASA officials said. Opportunity mission managers, however, said they would continue to listen passively until at least the end of January.
Scientists are eager to study any data they can about the recent March dust storm, to better understand these fairly regular but poorly understood events. For example, researchers can not accurately predict when a global dust storm will occur on Mars, and they do not know why small storms turn into monsters, while others disappear.
"I can estimate, two years in advance, the temperature, the atmospheric pressure and whether there will be dust or clouds in the air during the non dusty season. anywhere on the planet, "Scott Guzewich, a NASA Goddard atmospheric scientist conducts the Curiosity survey on dust, said in the same release. "But during the dust season, in places where there are dust storms, I can not predict that there will be a dust storm one day and not another."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @ michaeldwall and Google+. follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally posted on Space.com.
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