Ingenuity's mission halts: How do dust storms affect Mars' exploration?

Having a successful flight is a tough job, here on Earth and on other planets. Just like on our planet, weather plays a big role in a flight’s possible takeoff. NASA’s Ingenuity’s latest flight came to a halt after bad weather on the Red Planet threatened the exploration of the Jezero crater.

For NASA’s Ingenuity, the rover studying Mars, it’s been a busy year. Its helicopter has completed 18 flights to date since its first flight on April 19, 2021. The 19th flight of the helicopter was scheduled to happen on January 5th, but scientists with the help of the other rover Perseverance, located ahead of Ingenuity, were able to capture an approaching dust storm. Now the flight is not scheduled to happen any earlier than January 23rd. Hopefully, the weather will improve for a flight by that time.

The Red Planet is dusty, and dust season increases in the fall and winter seasons (in its southern hemisphere) which are the seasons coming up next for Ingenuity. Scientists say that this is the earliest they have seen a dust storm move through. Even though Mars does not have as many weather stations as we do on Earth, weather conditions have been monitored for years by the weather stations installed in the rovers. The suite of instruments closely monitors the air density and winds throughout the day, tracking changes with seasons.

Dust storms have big impacts on the rovers. The dust can prevent the dust from reaching the rovers' solar panels, and more dust means more heat, which decreases the air density, which is already very low on this planet, making it much harder for Ingenuity to fly.

Considering that the dust season is coming up, it is likely that the number of flights that Ingenuity will be able to do in the next 6sixmonths will be limited. But there is always hope for next season. Anyways, there is lots of exploration and measurements that can be taken in the dust. The research goes on!