Photos Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The Matador experiment, being led by Peter Smith of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space enterprise, will help identify what instruments are needed for to study much larger dust devils on Mars. These instruments will be deployed on a spacecraft bound for Mars later in this decade. The dust devils on Mars are 100 times larger than those that we have on Earth and pose a threat to Martian missions because of its electrical properties, putting in danger the computers, electronics, and radio communications involved.

Photo Courtesy of NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems