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The blessing and curse of the Martian Winds

The blessing and curse of the Martian Winds
The blessing and curse of the Martian Winds Opportunity used her Pancam to take the overhead self portraits above, in January 2014 (left), when her solar arrays was coated in the powdery Martian dust, and in late March 2014 (right) after the winds of Mars whisked off much of the dust from the arrays. As the MER team has learned, what the Martian winds give, they also take away. While the winds have threatened her life more than once, they have also enabled this ‘bot to live long and prosper. The team is now hoping that the “Hail Mary” efforts they initiated this month, January 2019, will help the beloved rover live to rove another day. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU