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Does the Martian atmosphere filter out certain frequencies of light? And how does it compare against the frequencies that their rover solar panel is sensitive t

Does the Martian atmosphere filter out certain frequencies of light? And how does it compare against the frequencies that their rover solar panel is sensitive to? Or is their atmosphere thin enough such that UV light gets through? Can they make use of that? Lots of questions just about their solar panels and what would be the most effective chemicals to make their solar panels out of to maximize their output. They have no probes previously on the surface of Mars. How would they know how to make their solar panels to be the most efficient without data? Did they just guess? Did NASA share that information? Or is that secret information that NASA kept quiet and Chinese spies stole that information? All three possibilities could have occurred but I really doubt that China would just guess and then spend billions of dollars to send a probe without knowing if it would work.

rsynnott 5y ago
To be clear, the composition of the Martian atmosphere is not a secret. And people had a fairly good idea before going there, obviously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars#History_of_atmospheric_observations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars#History_of_...
- plank_time 5y ago
  Composition of the atmosphere and knowing what frequencies of light make it all the way to the ground is different. There’s so much dust in the air that it might reflect different frequencies depending on where you are. That’s why having a cheaper probe on the ground that measures this makes it a better chance of getting it right for more expensive probes. But they don’t have those initial probes. My point is China has no probes on Mars unless they have secret ones. They can GUESS what would be best optional frequencies to tune their solar panels for but my point is that they are spending billions of dollars. Do they really want to rely on data they didn’t retrieve themselves? That seems like an odd thing to take a risk on. Better to either work together with nasa since they have the expertise. Hence I’m curious what the relationship is between China and nasa for this project and if it was an open one or if they got the data some other way.

rsynnott 5y ago

To be clear, the composition of the Martian atmosphere is not a secret. And people had a fairly good idea before going there, obviously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars#History_of_atmospheric_observations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars#History_of_...

plank_time 5y ago
Composition of the atmosphere and knowing what frequencies of light make it all the way to the ground is different. There’s so much dust in the air that it might reflect different frequencies depending on where you are. That’s why having a cheaper probe on the ground that measures this makes it a better chance of getting it right for more expensive probes. But they don’t have those initial probes. My point is China has no probes on Mars unless they have secret ones. They can GUESS what would be best optional frequencies to tune their solar panels for but my point is that they are spending billions of dollars. Do they really want to rely on data they didn’t retrieve themselves? That seems like an odd thing to take a risk on. Better to either work together with nasa since they have the expertise. Hence I’m curious what the relationship is between China and nasa for this project and if it was an open one or if they got the data some other way.