It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

A Discussion on Dust on Opportunity's Solar Panels

page: 4
4
<< 1  2  3   >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Jan, 27 2014 @ 02:12 AM
link   
In this thread Curiosity cameras reference images and distances about distance calculations we discussed dust as well and I was given a challenge:

Eriktheawful said...

Please post the images of the MERs with "super clean" panels, along with the date the pictures were taken.
Should be simple as that to prove your point. A picture of the panels covered with dust, then a later dated picture of them clean. Would be very easy to prove your point.


This thread gives me the answer to that challenge. :-)
OK, please see this post which has a clean set of panels from 2008 (see the right hand side of the wikipedia article about cleaning events. As you remember, the MERs landed in 2004. The wind must have been blowing extremely hard to clean the solar panels to nearly the same condition they were in when the rover landed. I wonder how that happened? It rather looks as if the rover has been steam-cleaned.



posted on Jan, 27 2014 @ 02:29 AM
link   
reply to post by qmantoo
 


No it doesn't. Dust is quite obviously present in the 2008 mosaic, just not as much as at other times.

####SNIPPED####

IF WIND CAN BLOW DUST ONTO THE PANELS,
IT CAN BLOW DUST OFF OF THE PANELS.

Deal with it.
edit on Tue Jan 28 2014 by DontTreadOnMe because: We expect civility and decorum within all topics.



posted on Jan, 28 2014 @ 02:30 AM
link   

[snipped]

IF WIND CAN BLOW DUST ONTO THE PANELS,
IT CAN BLOW DUST OFF OF THE PANELS.

Deal with it.

Thanks for that. No, I dont agree with you. The dust cannot blow off again after if has blown on. Mainly because there are nooks and crevices in amongst the instruments which make it impossible for dust blown on to the rover to then blow off again in the same manner. Of course some of it will, but also some of it wont too.

I live in a very dusty environment with dust blowing around all the time due to building work and heavy pollution, however, I see cars covered with the dust every day and it continues to build up in spite of the Earth-based winds which are much stronger than the Mars winds. From what I see around me and from what I have read on this thread about the force of Mars winds, you appear to be mistaken.
edit on Tue Jan 28 2014 by DontTreadOnMe because: (no reason given)



posted on Jan, 28 2014 @ 07:58 PM
link   



posted on Mar, 20 2014 @ 02:46 AM
link   
My bolded text.
"Some dust" in the quote below could be microscopic amounts or it could be larger more significant amounts, we just dont know and they are not about to tell us. They do say that it was more than in previous years, but how do they know unless there was NO dust removed in previous years? Maybe they should give us a winter before and after mug shot of Opportunity taken as a 360 degree panorama.

Source
14 Feb 2014


Opportunity's work on the north-facing slope below the escarpment will give the vehicle an energy advantage by tilting its solar panels toward the winter sun. Feb. 14 is the winter solstice in Mars' southern hemisphere, which includes the region where Opportunity has been working since it landed in January 2004.

"We are now past the minimum solar-energy point of this Martian winter," said Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We now can expect to have more energy available each week. What's more, recent winds removed some dust from the rover's solar array. So we have higher performance from the array than the previous two winters."



posted on Mar, 20 2014 @ 03:07 AM
link   

qmantoo
My bolded text.
"Some dust" in the quote below could be microscopic amounts or it could be larger more significant amounts, we just dont know and they are not about to tell us. They do say that it was more than in previous years, but how do they know unless there was NO dust removed in previous years? Maybe they should give us a winter before and after mug shot of Opportunity taken as a 360 degree panorama.

Source
14 Feb 2014


Opportunity's work on the north-facing slope below the escarpment will give the vehicle an energy advantage by tilting its solar panels toward the winter sun. Feb. 14 is the winter solstice in Mars' southern hemisphere, which includes the region where Opportunity has been working since it landed in January 2004.

"We are now past the minimum solar-energy point of this Martian winter," said Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We now can expect to have more energy available each week. What's more, recent winds removed some dust from the rover's solar array. So we have higher performance from the array than the previous two winters."



They told you that they have a higher output from the cells so more dust has been blown off you don't need to know the exact amount do you, also consider the winds will be like on Earth they don't blow the same strength or same direction all the time or does that just not occur to you?



new topics

top topics
 
4
<< 1  2  3   >>

log in

join