The Storm, Dust storm of 2007 Options

[OWW]

Oh no...This is getting bad:

The new and potentially bleak outlook is a stark shift from the prognosis earlier this week.

The dusty squall has reduced direct sunlight to Mars' surface by nearly 99 percent, an unprecedented threat for the solar-powered robotic explorers. If the storm keeps up and thickens with even more dust, officials fear the rovers' batteries may empty and silence the robotic explorers forever.

Opportunity's energy-gathering ability has been slashed to a dangerous 280 watt-hours-enough power to light only three 90-watt light bulbs.

"The worst-case scenario is that enough dust in the sky decreases solar energy to the point that we have to shut down too many things to save power," Lemmon said. "The rovers keep their battery alive by keeping their electronics alive."

"The reality of the situation is that we're limited as to what we can do from the ground by cutting power use," Callas said. "If it continues to worsen and stay that way, it's a survivability issue for Opportunity. If Mars wants to kill the rovers, it can."

http://www.space.com/news/070705_dusty_rovers.html

[helvick]

Pertinax wrote: It would be fascinating data if available in decent resolution.

I've been saying that for years.

I don't think we'll see it any time soon unfortunately. It's engineering data that doesn't directly feed into any science data (as far as I know) and since some of the engineering data skirts into ITAR terrain releasing any of it requires that lawyers clear it first. That's just asking too much for data that is only of marginal interest at this stage in the mission. It would be great if someone used the data as part of a paper (say on short time scale variations in atmospheric opacity) and got it published that way,

The temporal resolution was good enough for the team to be able to specify that Spirit's last major cleaning event happened at 13:20 local time (IIRC) so I think it's at least possible to get it down to 10 minute intervals.