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Dust clumping
alan
post Mar 28 2007, 04:28 AM
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I've been noticing that the images of Spirit's sundial have been appearing mottled lately.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...4JP2122L7M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...4JP2122R1M1.JPG

The pattern looks the same in both left and right pancam images so I believe this is not dust on the lens nor a compression artifact. I think Spirit's driving, and particularlly dragging the stuck wheel, has produced enough vibration to cause the dust on the sundial to clump. This may be happening on the solar panels too. Has anyone noticed this in images of the solar panels or heard if the power levels have been climbing faster than expected?
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nprev
post Mar 29 2007, 06:14 AM
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On the other hand, what if this is flour-fine material is sticking to the sundial via purely electrostatic means? We haven't had a cleaning event in quite some time, so it seems possible that wind-borne dust may be accumulating on this elevated area which has a slightly different charge than the terrain...just a thought.

Wonder if maybe MSL should drag a grounding strip behind it as many cars do in the Southwest US desert.


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Posts in this topic
- alan   Dust clumping   Mar 28 2007, 04:28 AM
- - alan   OK answering my own question. this image from the ...   Mar 28 2007, 04:36 AM
- - jaredGalen   So, would clumping be a good thing or a bad thing?...   Mar 28 2007, 01:50 PM
- - fredk   It's definitely real structure - it persists i...   Mar 28 2007, 02:55 PM
- - Jeff7   The result of extremely slight condensation, perha...   Mar 28 2007, 08:55 PM
- - djellison   I'm going to try a little experiment on this -...   Mar 28 2007, 09:18 PM
- - CosmicRocker   This is interesting, but also odd. These rovers h...   Mar 29 2007, 05:19 AM
- - nprev   On the other hand, what if this is flour-fine mate...   Mar 29 2007, 06:14 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (nprev @ Mar 29 2007, 07:14 AM) MSL...   Mar 29 2007, 07:07 AM
|- - nprev   QUOTE (djellison @ Mar 29 2007, 12:07 AM)...   Mar 30 2007, 01:57 AM
- - fredk   One more point - the dust layer looks the thickest...   Mar 29 2007, 02:20 PM
- - atomoid   too bad there's no humidity instrument on spir...   Mar 29 2007, 09:34 PM
- - alan   From the Planetary Society's MER update: QUOT...   Apr 1 2007, 04:38 PM

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