A Martian menace (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
THE Mars rover Spirit, now bogged down in the Red Planet’s soil, will need all the power it can muster if NASA scientists manage to get it moving again. So it’s timely that researchers are getting a handle on why dust that collects on the vehicle’s solar panels sticks so stubbornly.
Martian dust is particularly clingy. This was noticed more than a decade ago when surprisingly large amounts stuck to the wheels of NASA’s Sojourner rover. Static electricity was thought to be to blame, but no one could explain how the particles became charged.…
