Saru Posted November 16, 2012 #1 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Data collected by the rover's meteorological instruments indicates significant dust devil activity. Curiosity has spent several weeks now parked at a sand dune dubbed "Rocknest", where it has been testing procedures for digging up soil samples and delivering them to the robot's big internal laboratories. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted November 16, 2012 #2 Share Posted November 16, 2012 The article doen't indicate how strong these dust devils are, but I sure hope that one doesn't damage Curiousity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
27vet Posted November 16, 2012 #3 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Dust won't do the solar panels any good. They should have built in a way of cleaning the dust off them. I'm presuming they didn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted November 16, 2012 #4 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Dust won't do the solar panels any good. They should have built in a way of cleaning the dust off them. I'm presuming they didn't. That isn't a problem on Curiosity because it doesn't use solar panels, it uses a thermoelectric radioisotope generator thet utilizes the heat from decaying plutonium to charge a battery through thermocouples. This sysetm provides a steady amount of power regardless of environmental conditions and also warms vital instruments throughout the rover. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevewinn Posted November 17, 2012 #5 Share Posted November 17, 2012 The article doen't indicate how strong these dust devils are, but I sure hope that one doesn't damage Curiousity. i remember reading that these dust devils are really weak, if you experienced one it would be like someone blowing on you. so not even a light breeze. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted November 17, 2012 #6 Share Posted November 17, 2012 i remember reading that these dust devils are really weak, if you experienced one it would be like someone blowing on you. so not even a light breeze. OK. Good to know. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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