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Please can someone explain to me, in a simple way, how the solar panels are not absolutely covered in dust?
Opportunity's panoramic camera collected images for the mosaic over three days from Dec. 21 to Dec. 24 of last year, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The dust reduces the efficiency of the rover's solar panels. Previous dust build-ups were cleared by wind storms.
Can you say that this is dust built up over 5 years? No. Can you say that Spirit was similarly not affected by dust? No. There is no evidence in the mars images for dust on the rovers. Basically, you cannot have a buildup of dust and then some 'strong wind' come along and sweep it clean again because that same strong wind would leave other evidence in other places.
Actually, it looks pretty dusty to me.
The length of the shadow indicates that the dust plume reaches more than 800 meters, or half a mile, in height. The tail of the plume does not trace the path of the dust devil, which had been following a steady course towards the southeast and left a bright track behind it.
The delicate arc in the plume was produced by a westerly breeze at about a 250-meter height that blew the top of the plume towards the east. The westerly winds and the draw of warmth to the south combine to guide dust devils along southeast trending paths, as indicated by the tracks of many previous dust-devils. The dust plume itself is about 30 meters in diameter.
It's also interesting that this image was taken during the time of year when Mars is farthest from the Sun. Just as on Earth, Martian winds are powered by solar heating. Exposure to the sun's rays should be at a minimum during this season, yet even now, dust devils act relentlessly to clean the surface of freshly deposited dust, a little at a time.
Now, what would happen if you were caught in its path? Because the density of Mars' atmosphere is so low, even a high velocity dust devil is unlikely to knock you over. However, you might be blasted by any sand or dust particles carried along by the dust devil, which might scratch the visor of your space suit quickly if you were caught outside by this monster!
This vortex left behind a bright track as its winds disturbed the dust-covered surface, tracing the path of the dust devil from the northwest towards the southeast. A dust "skirt" twice as wide as the plume itself is seen near the base of the dust devil, but the bright track is the size of the plume and not the skirt. Dozens of smaller dust devils were also spotted in the same Context Camera scene, steadily vacuuming the surface and pumping dust up into the Martian atmosphere.
Originally posted by qmantoo
I searched for "mars rover dust solar panel" and no results...
Originally posted by qmantoo
There is no evidence in the mars images for dust on the rovers.
Originally posted by qmantoo
You can point to the videos of 'dust storms' as evidence, but I also dont see evidence of dust storms ON THE GROUND. Why dont we see it in the images?
Time-lapse composite of the Martian horizon during Sols 1205 (0.94), 1220 (2.9), 1225 (4.1), 1233 (3.8), 1235 (4.7) shows how much sunlight the dust storms blocked; Tau of 4.7 indicates 99% blocked. credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
Originally posted by qmantoo
On one hand the wind clears off the dust from the solar panels and there are huge wind storms and on the other hand there is no evidence of blown blueberries (which are only 5mm in diameter) being blown into piles behind rocks. Please explain that to me because I cannot.
Martian dust ... is less than 30 micrometres in diameter.
Originally posted by qmantoo
I see none of this kind of evidence which I would have expected.
Originally posted by qmantoo
I would really love the rovers to be able to continue on their journey around Mars with fortuitous winds cleaning their instruments every so often.
Originally posted by qmantoo
Can you say that this is dust built up over 5 years?
There is no evidence in the mars images for dust on the rovers.
Where is the buildup behind rocks of blueberries or where are the piles of blueberries? So far I see none of this kind of evidence which I would have expected.
Originally posted by Lil Drummerboy
reply to post by Saint Exupery
what took that picture?
Originally posted by Lil Drummerboy
reply to post by Saint Exupery
what took that picture?
Originally posted by Lil Drummerboy
...and dont you need atmosphere for wind?
Air-fall dust accumulates on the solar panels of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the solar arrays. Pre-launch models predicted steady dust accumulation. However, the rovers have been blessed with occasional wind events that clear significant amounts of dust from the solar panels.
This graph shows the effects of those panel-cleaning events on the amount of electricity generated by Spirit's solar panels. The horizontal scale is the number of Martian days (sols) after Spirit's Jan. 4, 2005, (Universal Time) landing on Mars. The vertical scale indicates output from the rover's solar panels as a fraction of the amount produced when the clean panels first opened. Note that the gradual declines are interrupted by occasional sharp increases, such as a dust-cleaning event on sol 420.
Originally posted by qmantoo
So in fact that although the white dust (more like smoke) is blowing one way, the dust devil itself is moving another direction.
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Originally posted by qmantoo
Over millions of years, I would have expected to see more dust deposited in lee areas behind rocks etc. which are out of the wind.
Maybe not, however, some planets like Mars have been known to have huge dust storms. The article has a comparison image of June and September showing the huge dust storm on Mars.
Judging by the graph, the sudden and sharp increases in electricity produced couldn't have been due to the atmosphere getting clearer, unless you're implying that the atmosphere had been getting more and more opaque over the course of 400 sols, then suddenly cleared up. The variations in the atmosphere transparency is more likely reflected in the small random differences in the distribution of data points.