Update folks!!!!!!!<br /><br />It is getting worse (the dust storm that is).<br /><br />From JPL website.<br /><br /><br />Dust Delays Mars Crater Entry<br />July 03, 2007 <br /><br />A giant dust storm brewing for more than a week on Mars has become worse and is affecting<br />surface operations of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. <br />Because the rovers depend on solar energy for survival, and the dust is partially <br />blocking the sun, the storm is being watched closely by the rover scientists and <br />engineers. Opportunity's entry into Victoria Crater is delayed for at least several days. <br /><br />The storm, the most severe storm yet to hit the rovers, is expected to continue for at <br />least another week. Opportunity is perched near "Duck Bay" as it readies to descend <br />into Victoria Crater, but operations were scaled back on Saturday, June 30, to conserve power. <br /><br />"The storm is affecting both rovers and reducing the power levels on Opportunity," <br />said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at NASA's <br />Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are keeping an eye on this as we <br />go forward, but our entry into Victoria Crater will be delayed until no sooner than July 13." <br /><br />"We have some data that show the atmospheric opacity is decreasing, so the storm <br />might have peaked and we <br />may have passed the worst of this. The situation could improve quickly from here, but <br />we will have to wait and see," said Callas. <br /><br />Weather reports from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Color Imager <br />camera are helping track the storm and plan rover operations. <br /><br />Pictures from the orbiter's Mars Color Imager show the storm is regional in extent, <br />and includes several local areas of especially high dust activity. The storm has been <br />moving eastward and toward mid-latitudes, and is now also causing an increase in <br />atmospheric dust at Spirit's location, on the opposite side of th <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p>
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br />
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p>
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
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