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  • BBC Sky at Night

    CUTTING EDGE

    Sep 17, 2020 4 minutes

    The winds of Mars

    To continue exploring the surface of Mars we must first understand its atmosphere

    The film The Martian saw astronaut Mark Watney marooned on Mars after a dust-storm threatened to topple his crew’s ascent craft. Although the film (and the book it’s based on by Andy Weir) is pretty true to the science and technology that will be needed for a human mission to Mars, this opening scene played with dramatic licence. Even though Martian winds can peak at over 100kph, the atmosphere is so thin you would barely notice this buffeting a space suit.

    That’s not to say that a more complete understanding of Martian winds is not needed. Scott Guzewich of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has led the

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