Mars Rover tire tracks

Tony Sivori wrote:

kegwasher wrote:
Tony Sivori wrote:
Would anyone care to speculate as to how long will the rover tracks
will last in the Martian sand? Are they likely to be erased by the
first sand storm? Or might they last for hundreds of years?


what about the poor rover? Will it blown away like dorothy in the first
dust storm to come along?

I have read that the Martian wind is so thin that it cannot pick up
anything much larger than a grain of sand.



From the last pdf below it would appear that the wind speed varies from a
norm of 2 to 14mph with up to 50mph winds recorded. The first pdf gives
the wind velocity required to pick up sand under those conditions. Which
is roughly 4.5m/s. So the sand would only be picked up on a relatively
windy day. Doesn't sound like the tracks or rovers have much to worry
about.



http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2002/pdf/2022.pdf


http://helios.ecn.purdue.edu/~tatjan...2/Report-7.pdf