Spirit Rover On Mars Solar Panels Cleaned

Both were taken by opportunity s panoramic camera pancam.

Spirit rover on mars solar panels cleaned.

A cleaning event is a phenomenon whereby dust is removed from solar panels in the context of exploration and science rovers on mars supposedly by the action of wind. The cleaning boosts spirit s daily energy supply by about 30 watt hours to about 240 watt hours from 210 watt hours. Initial scientific results from the first phase of the mission were published in a special issue of the journal science. Spirit also logged 7 73 km of driving instead of the planned 600 m allowing more extensive geological analysis of martian rocks and planetary surface features.

Dusty solar panels on spirit january 01 2000 the deck of nasa s mars exploration rover spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background in this image assembled from frames taken by the panoramic camera pancam during the period from spirit s sol 1 355 through sol 1 358 oct. Nasa s mars rover opportunity seems to have stumbled into something akin to a carwash that has left its solar panels much cleaner than those of its twin rover spirit. A small but important uptick in electrical output from the solar panels on nasa s mars exploration rover spirit this month indicates a beneficial martian wind has blown away some of the dust that has accumulated on the panels. The term cleaning event is used on several nasa webpages.

Nasa rover opportunity s selfie shows clean machine april 17 2014 a self portrait of nasa s mars exploration rover opportunity taken in late march 2014 right shows that much of the dust on the rover s solar arrays has been removed since a similar portrait from january 2014 left. A martian carwash would. Aided by cleaning events that resulted in more energy from its solar panels spirit went on to function effectively over twenty times longer than nasa planners expected. Generally supposing that martian winds have blown dust clear off the probes on mars including the solar panels which power them increasing their energy output.