Spirit and Opportunity Are Back Online 145
PinkyGigglebrain sends us news that the Mars rovers have survived the dust storms that have swept the surface of Mars for the last 6 weeks. How well they survived remains to be seen. Due to a combination of dust still suspended in the atmosphere and dust on the rovers' solar panels, they are only producing about half the power they normally would. The article is a little sparse on the exact health of the rovers but it's good to know they are still with us.
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It's both actually. The dust in the atmosphere appears to be settling on the rovers as it settles from the sky. Spirit's microscope became fogged with dust during the storm because of this and they are taking images to assess the damage and to use as reference images to attempt to digitally correct the distortion caused by the dust. I've read that both rovers are currently performing tests of most their instruments to assess dust pollution. If they know the extent of the pollution they can correct for some of it by subtracting out the changes. However, this reduces total sensitivity.
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