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Mars’ winds give and take

Mars’ winds give and take
Mars’ winds give and take Opportunity used her Pancam to take the 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 Martian winds whisked off much of the dust from the solar arrays. As the Martian winds giveth, they also taketh away, enabling this robot to live long and prosper. The MER team is hoping as the global dust event decays, residual winds will clear some of the dust that has likely coated the rover’s solar arrays. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU