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'Something' Cleaning Mars Rover

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the interplanetary-rose-royce dept.

bluenirve writes "'Something' has been cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rover Opportunity. "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 Martian carwash would account for a series of unexpected boosts in the electrical power produced by Opportunity's solar panels.""

2 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Yesterday's News. by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dupe from Yesterday

  2. Re:hmmm... by QuantumFTL · · Score: 4, Informative

    What about several layers of thin clear plastic that's tensioned? You have each layer held down with tabs,and release them one by one as the cells accumulate dust. The released plastic curls up at one end of the cells when released.

    I work for Steve Squyres (the Principle Investigator) and he said that they considered this option as well, and it was prone to failure.

    Looks like they made the right call after all!

    Cheers,
    Justin