Phoenix Lander dust devil movie

Movies speak for themselves. Mars is alive with weather.

Video Credit: Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University







Thanks to the Phoenix Mars Mission crew for these great movies.

Dust storms are a normal, annual condition on Mars, often covering nearly the whole planet. Nothing new or strange about it.

Thanks for posting, awesome! But what's with the 2nd video you have going there with the plug thing dangling down? What is that? Just curious.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Yeah, you're right it ain't nothing, we've had movies of these for years.

It's one thing hypothesizing about them. Of course we've seen what appears to be storms from a distance - telescopes & spacecraft. Then it's another thing when we have evidence that they do exist - as in our rovers and now the Phoenix Lander.

So, we do have a picture library building of these things, but at this point movies are rare - so enjoy.

I just want to make sure that I understand this thread. Does it say -"Hey look guys, look at this. No it is not new. Yeah we knew about it. We have had this footage for over a year. It is not really new in anyway shape or form at all. I felt it was important to make a thread covering it though."

I just want to make sure that I understand my stay here at ATS and you people can really get confusing.

reply to post by LateApexer313


It's the "telltale".

The Telltale consists of a gallows that is mounted on the top of the Meteorological Mast of the Lander. The active element of the instrument is an extremely lightweight Kapton tube hanging in Kevlar fibres. Images taken of the instrument will show the deflection of the Telltale due to the wind. A mirror is mounted below the active part to enable better direction information.

Source

reply to post by ArMaP


Thanks for that great explanation - as always by ArMaP.

Even I thought only sailors used them thingy's up on the mast. Amazing how old tech becomes new tech.

Here's the Source Link with summary of the movies.

[edit on 14-9-2008 by verylowfrequency]

reply to post by verylowfrequency


Some things are so god at what they are supposed to do that it is difficult to make them evolve without making then worse.

Technology is just a way of helping us reach some objective, when that objective is reached there is no need for more.

So these are the famous brooms of wind that regularly sweep the robots clean of that nasty "red" martian dust?
I wish I had one of those to let loose in my teenage sons room, hehe

[edit on 9/19/2008 by Kr0n0s]