Skip to navigation | Skip to content

Mars twisters may wreck manned mission

Mars tornado

An electrified Martian dust devil might look like this. The whitish glow near the bottom is the result of an electrical discharge (Image: University of Michigan)

If humans ever go to Mars, they may find electric mini-tornadoes that could make toxic dust stick to their spacesuits, researchers say.

NASA scientists described electrically charge swirling 'dust devils' in the March issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

NASA scientists have already detected whirlwinds and dust storms on Mars, and predict they may generate electric charges just like small tornadoes on Earth.

"There's probably an electrical environment to Mars which up to now has gone unmeasured," said lead author Dr William Farrell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

"Chances are probably pretty good that the same kind of physics is going on there that's going on here."

On Earth, the electrical activity is most commonly seen during thunderstorms, Farrell said.

"On Mars that may also be occurring, but driven by dust storms and dust devils."

A dust devil on Earth is a tornado from 10 to 100 meters across with winds ranging from 32 to 96 kilometres per hour swirling around a hot column of rising air. Dust particles rub together in the twister to create an electric charge.

On Mars, jumbo-sized dust devils can be up to 500 meters across and several thousand meters high, the researchers said.

Beyond this, there are huge dust storms that can cover whole regions of Mars or even the whole planet, and can last for months.

Problem for astronauts

Noting that a week-long sandstorm on Earth in a place like Iraq can cause havoc for equipment and personnel, Farrell said dust devils on a Martian scale could cause problems for human visitors.

"If you're an astronaut and you're stuck in this for three months, it's not going to make your life any easier," he said.

As on Earth, Martian mini-tornadoes may produce an electric field of 4000 volts per meter, not enough to power a toaster but certainly enough to create dangerous static cling with spacesuits and equipment, Farrell said.

"[The Martian dust] won't weigh it down, but you're going to have a heck of a time getting it off, and at this point we're not sure that Mars dust is all that healthy," he said.

A future robotic probe tentatively set for 2007 is expected to analyse the toxicity of Martian dust.

U.S. President George W Bush announced plans this year to send humans back to the Moon as soon as 2015 and eventually to Mars.

Tags: science-and-technology, astronomy-space, geography, weather