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Mystery Phenomenon Cleans Mars Opportunity Rover

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-labor's-just-really-cheap-there dept.

vg30e writes "It seems that some unexplained phenomenon has cleaned the dirt off the Mars Opportunity Rover. While the Spirit rover is down to 400 watt-hours per day due to the dirt obscuring its solar panels, Opportunity has gone from 500 watt-hours to 900 per day. I wish this phenomenon would clean the snow off my car."

20 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. My thoughts by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've got a theory, and I think you may all agree with me on this:

    We've stumbled on an ancient Martain car wash.

    It's invisible, of course.

    To think anything different would be just plain silly.

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    1. Re:My thoughts by Alsee · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think you mean an ancient invisible Martian roverwash.

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  2. Totaly uneducated guess... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Static build up during the day attracts dirt and particles, and during the night, when the machine shuts down most of the way the static charge bleeds away, and martian wind blows the dust off.

  3. Wipers? by vettemph · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I been wondering why they didn't just design a slow moving wiper brush to clean the panels in the first place. One wipe every 30 days or as needed.

    --
    The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
    1. Re:Wipers? by Bobas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That would add additional complexity to the spacecraft, especially as it was not expected for the rovers to last past the period of 90 days.

    2. Re:Wipers? by Tom+Rothamel · · Score: 2, Informative

      (Btw, instead of a wiper, which could potentially get gritty and scratch the panels, I'd just be inclined to implement the panels such that they can be "flipped over" once a day to dump the dust off -- shouldn't be too hard depending on how they're already mounted.)

      The problem with this is that, if the motors that flip the solar panels fail, we have one dead rover. So is it better to live with a slow degredation of the rovers' performance (which still lets them accomplish everythings they need to, almost a year after they landed), or risk a sudden and dramatic end to the mission?

  4. Hoax? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This sounds very much like a hoax. From the Reuters article ...

    "It said something -- or someone -- had regularly cleaned layers of dust from the solar panels of the Mars Opportunity vehicle while it was closed down during the Martian night."

    It just strikes me that this was written by a naive reporter at the butt of a Nasa-inspired joke.

  5. Phrase for the ages by CrosseyedPainless · · Score: 4, Funny

    You have to love an article containing the phrase "exciting and unexplained cleaning events".

    I sure wish some of these would happen in my car and apartment!

    1. Re:Phrase for the ages by Alsee · · Score: 4, Funny

      So a woman cleaned the rover?
      Well that clears up a lot of confusion! Women are actually from Mars and men are from Venus!

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  6. Someone has to say it... by MarkGriz · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our little green dirt cleaning overlords.

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    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  7. Just goes to show... by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny


    Women are from Mars.

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  8. At every corner... by Basilisk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... there stands a martian squeegee kid.

  9. Not just uneducated by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 2

    it doesn't even cover the facts. The other rover isn't getting cleaned.

    1. Re:Not just uneducated by escher · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's because they used the competing brand of rover softener on that one.

  10. Re:Rain. by harrkev · · Score: 4, Funny
    It rains on Mars.

    It is much more likely that NASA is now in posession of a photograph of a green guy in dingy clothes holding his hand out for a quarter.
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  11. I know, I know by DogBarf · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's the phone sanitizers!

  12. Re:Maybe it was some phenomenon by Chuckstar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the air was too thin to carry dust, how would the dust get on the solar panels?

  13. Re:Maybe it was some phenomenon by ChickenAintDone · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well if the wind does carry the dust on to the panel, can you expect the same wind to carry it off the panel instead of add more?

  14. Conspiracy: Mars by francisew · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After the whole mooon landing hoax ;), NASA still hasn't learned to keep the janitors from having keys into their top-secret sound-stages. One of the cleaners saw the poor little dirty machine, and decided to give it a thorough scrubbing.

    I hope they take better care of the dolphins with lasers on their heads.

  15. I hope Opportunity carries some spare change by jope · · Score: 2, Funny

    Duh, that's obvious. It was one of those bums that run up and wash your windshield at a traffic light, then try to demand payment.

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