A global dust storm?
Upon hearing Hou Guang say that, Lu Zhou instinctively glanced at the calendar on the corner of the desk and confirmed that the year was 2021.
Noticing Lu Zhou's movement, Hou Guang roughly guessed what he was thinking and spoke up.
"I know you're surprised... In fact, the astronomers at the Qianzhou Radio Astronomy Observatory were also quite puzzled. Logically speaking, Mars only experiences a global dust storm once every five or six years on average."
As he said this, Hou Guang's tone was somewhat complicated.
Although it was good news for them that their rival had run into trouble, just as NASA did not want to see them fail too completely, it was not in their interests for the Ares Program to go bankrupt like this either.
After listening to his report, Lu Zhou pondered for a moment before asking,
"Do we know the reason?"
Hou Guang froze for a moment, then gave a bitter smile.
"How could we know that..."
Changes in Mars's surface climate had always been highly unpredictable. Because of its thin atmosphere and severe desertification, there were basically no reliable means of accurately forecasting its climate changes.
People could only infer from experience that summer was the season when dust storms occurred most frequently. Global dust storms came once every five or six years, could last several months or even an entire year, and were accompanied by lightning produced by collisions and friction between sand particles.
To accurately predict changes in Mars's climate, they would at least need to throw a few weather satellites into Low Earth Orbit around Mars first.
Lu Zhou asked, "If they encounter a global dust storm, what impact will it have on the colonists on Mars?"
Hou Guang replied, "Generally speaking, dust storms mainly affect the