"Jon Berndt" wrote in message
...
I've heard in some of the press conferences questions from the press about
concerns for potential dust devils in the vicinity of Spirit.

I caught most of the news conference. It was interesting how many in the
press dwell on what can go haywire or how the mission can fail since they
are writing for the public and the public can understand failure easier than
Mars science.

The lady on the panel explained that the kind of dust that is presently
approaching Spirit is a fine haze at high altitude. So there is not an
immediate threat, based on what we know about Mars, which is not as much as
we would like.

So it got me thinking what if the panels were covered with a thick coat of
dust. And I think we can safely say that they wouldn't work.

On a related subject, the Spirit looks like it has some serious solar panel
real estate. What is the output of those things? Oh yeah. Another guy said
they had taken a temp reading in the transmitter and it was 48 F, and they
were pleased with that temp, Sounds like a mild day on Mars.