Mystery Martian cleans US space buggy

[Champ]

An unexplained phenomenon akin to a space-borne car wash has boosted the performance of one of the two US rovers probing the surface of Mars, New Scientist magazine said.

It said something - or someone - had regularly cleaned layers of dust from the solar panels of the Mars Opportunity vehicle while it was closed down during the Martian night.

The cleaning had boosted the panels' power output close to their maximum 900 watt-hours per day after at one stage dropping to 500 watt-hours because of the heavy Martian dirt.

By contrast, the power output of the solar panels of Mars Spirit - on a different part of the Red Planet - had dropped to just 400 watt-hours a day, clogged by the heavy dust.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1270252.htm

[Cush]

1. hmm, who will be footing the bill?

[tigereye]

2. my husband has always maintained

that many of the Mars missions went awry due to the "Martians" not liking too much action up there. :silly: ( I THINK he's teasing)

[Fiona]

3. This explains

the brush on his helmet

[johnnie]

4. Heh

That is funny.

[Maple]

5. Well at least the Martians have stopped

shooting them down! :D