Dust on Mars" robotic vehicles" solar panels

vlam67

31st August 2007 - 12:44 AM

http://www.physorg.com/news107697086.html

Anybody please tell me why an inclusion of a simple pressurized air can to blow the dust off the solar panels was too hard too engineer/included??

Guest_Michael

31st August 2007 - 02:56 AM

The top of the rovers are basically a large solar panel, a pressurized air cleaning system would probably be as big as the rover itself. The rovers were on a 90 day mission, they've been working 3.5 years, long term dust accumulation wasn't an issue.

The Mars Rover mission has been extended 4 times now, it's due to expire again next month.

RavenWizard

10th September 2007 - 04:39 AM

The rovers and their longevity are certainly providing a lot of priceless data about their durability. Rest assured, optics and battery efficiency under “known” extreme conditions will be some of their successor’s refinements.

Well, they ought to be.

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