I just happened to think... I didn't explain the story behind this.  The
"escaping" hovercraft is going the diagonal direction for a reason actually.
The home base is where it's headed and that means flirting with disaster to get
there before being overwhelmed by the dust clouds.  The robot-controlled vehicle
was a long ways off when this storm popped up almost between the two positions.
No people, so nothing to fret too much about.
I started on this in part because of a mini-movie being conceived of over at
AOL's POV-Ray Chat room and in part because I always wanted to do this
particular thing yet was never motivated to try.  Other POVers are endlessly
good to have around.
Yes, dust storms on Mars are common during seasonal changes.  There's one on
record which essentially covered the entire planet but started out as a small
stirred up area.  In fact I probably have this dust storm too small in height
believe it or not.  I went through a volcanic ash storm (guess you'd call it)
one time while motorcycling along I-5 freeway west of Mt. St. Helens in
Washington, USA one of the few times I had gone there to see the mountain.  It
was only wind-blown ash, no eruption at the time but was impressive enough
itself.  My little 100cc Yamaha motorcycle didn't last much longer after that,
lost compression from the eroded piston cylinder and rings.
I've seen video of a dust storm in Melbourne Australia, think it was, nice view
showing it roll into the city.

Bob

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