NASA Reveals Dust Devil Data from Mars

saskboy writes "NASA reports that Martian dust devils could be much more destructive than previously considered. You may remember this past April when it was revealed that whirlwinds actually helped the current rovers by cleaning accumulated dust from their solar cells which increased their energy collection efficiency. But after studying the mini-storms more, they realize that the dust and sand particles could cause static electricity discharges, also known as lightning. The high speed grains of sand blowing around at about 30 meters/second (70 miles per hour) are nothing to blink at either, since they can damage astronauts or equipment on the Martian surface. The height of a Martian dust devil can reach 10km (6 miles), which means it's more like the size of a terran tornado."

Comments

Re:At 1/100th earth pressure?

[Rei]

More specifically, Mars's atmosphere is about 0.7% of ours (incredibly thin); "tenuous" would be a good term for it. Even though energy of wind is proportional to velocity squared, this means that the winds (assuming that they're equal to atmospheric density) have the energy of a 6 mph breeze on Earth.

The problem isn't the force, but the dust. The dust is a problem on its own; it almost seems designed to create static charges and then penetrate tiny cracks in everything around.