Final Project

Nicholas B.

Legislator:  Delwin Jones, Representative

(Click on the image above to enlarge.)

Planetary Dust Storms

Mars has always been a place of wonder, desire and indescribable beauty for some; to others it is just another planet in this vast galaxy we call the Milky Way. But, to those of us who have a never ending interest in this old frontier pioneered by early astronomers such as Galileo and Kepler, Mars could very well hold the key to the expansion of our species.  Today though thanks to modern technology and not so modern theories that still prove to be relative and true we are getting a lot closer to landing on Mars than we were say last year, though there is still a lot of technology we must still develop.  However another aspect of the mission that must be explored is that of  weather habits on the desired landing site a.k.a. Mars.  Which is what my final project will deal with though not  weather in general but with one aspect of it which is that of the massive dust storms that rage on its surface.  I will mainly discuss their size and make up as compared to Earth’s, their source, possible problems they will cause us during our time there and possible solutions to correct them.

         

Earth’s dust storms as we know are relatively mild when compared to Mars’s though some people in west Texas might disagree we know that with almost perfect certainty they are, but how much milder are they really and what is the difference in the components?  Well first Earth’s are much milder than those studied on Mars we know this because of comparison studies done using satellite images both taken from the same relative altitude and around the same time of year by our calendar. For example the images below are of storm’s on Earth and Mars.  The photograph of the Earth’s storm was taken on the 26th of February 2000 off the coast of northwest Africa near the Earth's equator while the storm on Mars that it was compared to was taken on the 29th August 2000 over the Martian north pole.

         

Now because these pictures were taken from the same relative altitude and are set to the same scale of 4 km (2.5 mi.) per pixel you are probably wondering why the storm on Earth looks bigger when I just said that ours were smaller in relation.  Well the reason for this is that though the pictures are both the same size the storms as you have probably guessed by now are not.  Actually we are looking at a pretty normal Martian storm where as the picture of the Earth’s storm is that of one of our largest and was created by the largest desert on our planet the Sahara Desert.  As I said the first picture shows a normal Martian dust storm, but what precisely is normal when it comes to dust storms.  On Mars the normal sized Dust storm is about 1 million km2 and forms at around 33 to 66 mph lasting for a few days, to put it into perspective these storms normally cover an area about the size of Arizona or New Mexico.  Though that is the normal size of Martian storms they can grow to be much larger so large that they cover anywhere from an entire hemisphere to the entire planet some thing that our dust storms thankfully do not do.  However, aside from there just being dust storms there are also smaller dust devils such as those on Earth that range from an average of 2km wide to a few kilometers high though they can grow to be larger.  Normal dust storms on Earth as we know are relatively smaller and last for much shorter periods of time and normally do not occur everywhere.  The main and most obvious reason for this is that the planet Earth is not covered in fine red dust.  Instead it is covered by vegetation and man made objects which hold down the top layer of dirt keeping the wind from blowing it around and causing massive dust storms.  Even if Earth was not covered by these things its storms would not be the same as those on Mars due to the fact that the make up of our storms are different.  On Earth dust storms consist of well dirt, sand, and basically whatever else the wind picks up, while on Mars the storms are made up of  the fine red dust that covers the planet.  This dust is made up of, well we don’t exactly know yet because of the fact that we haven’t been able to do any extensive tests over it.  What we do know though is that it is brownish red and has the consistency of flour though it is much more abrasive.

         

Though the exact source and structure of Martian dust storms is unknown there are many predictions as to what they are.  These predictions include theories that range from Hurricane like structures to those including the release of CO2.  The most logical predictions of the causes are those that state that the storms are caused by changes in atmospheric pressures and temperatures that cause large winds to develop that provide the required wind threshold needed for a dust storm.  Though we are not sure on the exact source of the storms we are rather certain as to the types of prools, machinery, habitats and astronauts less susceptible to the invasion of dust while still allowing them to function properly.  One specific solution is to use the idea of a dust removal system of which there are four types, Natural, Mechanical, electromechanical and electrostatic as stated by Geoffrey A. Landis in his report on Dust Removal Technology.  This solution however would be used mainly for the removal of dust deposits on such things as solar arrays and possibly habitats.  Solutions for the prevention of sand related malfunctions in space suits for example could be that of using a stronger light weight form of air duct tubing that is used in heating and air conditioning.  A solution that could fit that of dust prevention in the habitat could include a type of dome that surrounds it equipped with a sucking and blowing mechanism that is activated before, after and during the arrival or departure of an astronaut.  Though these solutions maybe a start there are many more problems we must correct not to mention many other problems that we will encounter once there.

         

So in short you can see that Martian dust storms are much worse than Earth’s and will be much harder to adapt to due to their large and unpredictable nature.  That is until we are able to send more sophisticated probes to the surface or until we ourselves can make the trip to gather better information and samples.  But until then we must work with the information that we have and design near perfect solutions to problems that are known and unknown;  if we don’t then it could mean life or death not only to a crew of astronauts but to the Mission to Mars program as a whole.

SOURCES http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/duststorms/E3_795-796_803-804_816-817.html

http://humbabe.arc.nasa.gov/mgcm/faq/dust.html http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02807

http://powerweb.lerc.nasa.gov/pvsee/publications/mars/removal.html

Last Updated: 09/07/01