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FiNsKaPiNnAr t1_ivwmsaf wrote

I dont get why they dont a solar pannel compressor that blows away the dust through small nossles put around the pannel.Cant be so hard to do?

Mars air is carbon dioxide and it is compresseble like air on earth.

It would blow away the dust on the pannels.

EDIT:i saw looked it up on a Nasa site and they had have thought about it and other ideas.

they can do it with compressors driven by the change of tempature of night and day.

And there was ideas of wipers,drones blowing away the dust,tilting the panels,vibrating the panels with like phone vibrators but it said that they not going to put more effort in this because they going nuklear power in future.

Just google compressed air on solar panels rovers.

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is_explode t1_ivwsyy1 wrote

The martian atmosphere has a very low density, so you can't just use a normal compressor. And any compressor you bring is extra mass and volume you can't use for science. And you have to think about how a compressor running would impact sensitive instruments.

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Palmput t1_ivxd52h wrote

I can’t wait for operational Starship to put an end to planetary science mass insanity. Even if manned missions are still far away, they can finally just send a rugged machine with off the shelf parts.

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is_explode t1_ivya65m wrote

Assuming the cost estimates are actually close, that will definitely help. Although in some places (see high rad environment near Europa) you still wouldn't want COTS hardware. And some things like RTGs are probably never going to be available COTS.

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imafraidofmuricans t1_ivyh1k6 wrote

No they can't.

The instruments aren't delicate for the fun of it. Sensitivity means fragility. Even sensitive instruments on earth are fragile.

Going to grab an RTG at home depo, for that matter? It seems you dont quite understand that Mars is not earth. The atmosphere is thin as hell and there is more dust than even in your bedroom. Off they shelf parts would get shredded by dust alone. I remind you that curiosity weights 1 ton and is the size of a car. The issue is not payload weight, it's how absurdly hostile Mars is. It's not beach sand.

"Planetary science mass insanity". I'm going to be blunt: you are an idiot. Not because you know less than the people doing this work. But because you fail to realize you know nothing, and choose to call it "mass insanity".

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Palmput t1_ivz5157 wrote

You’ve got to chill the hell out. Besides, we’re talking about Mars. They’ve already sent commercial parts. The problem is that they couldn’t afford to use more durable structural pieces. Yes, like Curiosity as you said. The wheels were shredded because they were extremely thin. If they had the mass budget for solid steel wheels, more powerful motors, and a larger power source to compensate, that’s that problem dealt with. Engineers are more clever than you seem to think.

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rocketsocks t1_ivwxsy5 wrote

If it weren't hard to do someone they'd be doing it. Three space programs have recently built Mars rovers/landers (NASA, CNSA, and ESA), and none of them have had automated dust removal systems. If it were easy you'd think at least one would do it. Logically the conclusion should be that it's not as easy as it seems.

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