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Mars rover catches wind of fleeting dust devils BY STEPHEN CLARK SPACEFLIGHT NOW Posted: November 15, 2012 Weather sensors on the Curiosity rover have picked up signs of dust devils brushing by the six-wheeled robot, researchers said Thursday, but the rover's cameras have not yet caught sight of the passing whirlwinds.
The REMS instrument, which was provided by Spain, measured falling air pressure, changes in wind conditions and temperature, and dips in ultraviolet light reaching the rover - all characteristics of a whirlwind. Curiosity is not the first mission to encounter a Mars twister. The Spirit and Opportunity rovers returned images of dust devils, and the whirlwinds cleared dust from the vehicles as they moved overhead, raising the efficiency of their power-producing solar panels. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has also spotted dust devils from hundreds of miles overheard. Scientists suspect the vortices in the rover's Gale Crater landing site may not lift as much dust into the Martian atmosphere as they do at other locales. Curiosity's suite of cameras haven't caught one of the whirlwinds, and satellites haven't spotted dust devil tracks seen elsewhere. "Dust in the atmosphere has a major role in shaping the climate on Mars," de la Torre Juarez said. "The dust lifted by dust devils and dust storms warms the atmosphere." The REMS payload was damaged during Curiosity's Aug. 6 landing on Mars. Officials blame the loss of one of the instrument's wind detectors on a piece of gravel kicked up by the rover's landing engines. But the wind instrument remains sensitive enough to return good science, and researchers were surprised to find the prevailing winds inside Gale Crater blow in an east-west direction. Scientists expected the winds would be induced to move north-south up and down the slope of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high peak in the center of Gale Crater. Instead, the rim of Gale Crater and the slope of Mount Sharp may funnel air through the valley in which Curiosity is operating. "With the crater rim slope to the north and Mount Sharp to the south, we may be seeing more of the wind blowing along the depression in between the two slopes, rather than up and down the slope of Mount Sharp," said Claire Newman, a REMS investigator at Ashima Research in Pasadena, Calif. "If we don't see a change in wind patterns as Curiosity heads up the slope of Mount Sharp - that would be a surprise." Curiosity has been parked at a patch of sandy soil named "Rocknest" for more than a month, but controllers expect to command the rover to begin driving again Friday or Saturday. The rover will move further into a geologic feature known was "Glenelg," where three different types of terrain converge. Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's deputy project scientist, said the rover will continue studying rocks at Glenelg for the next month or two. Curiosity will also use its drill for the first time, according to Vasavada. The rover will leave Glenelg and drive toward the flank of Mount Sharp around the beginning of next year, moving toward the $2.5 billion mission's ultimate scientific objective - layered rocks which contain clues on the red planet's past habitability.
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