Solar Storms Create a Risk for Mars Exploration Scientists Hadn’t Expected
New research suggests that solar storms can intensify Martian dust storms by heating the planet's lower atmosphere. This interaction poses unexpected risks for robotic exploration missions on the Red Planet.
Why it matters
Understanding these atmospheric interactions is critical for the survival of future and current robotic missions to Mars.
It took seven months to confirm that NASA’s Opportunity rover was dead . The U.S. space agency’s little robotic probe had stopped communicating with Earth back on June 10, 2018 —after being engulfed by a severe Martian dust storm then blanketing the entire Red Planet. It’s taken years, but physicists now have some idea about why exactly that storm became so dangerous.
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