Dust storm cuts energy supply of Mars Rover Spirit

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 13:56 in Astronomy & Space

A dust storm on Mars has cut into the amount of sunlight reaching the solar array on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, leaving the rover in a vulnerable state. Spirit's solar array produced only 89 watt hours of energy during the rover's 1,725th Martian day, which ended on 9 November. This is the lowest output by either Spirit or its twin, Opportunity, in their nearly five years on Mars, and much less energy than Spirit needs each day...

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