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Not for Curiosity and Perseverance, which use RTGs. NASA like RTGs for their big, power-hungry vehicles, and use solar panels on the smaller ones. I guess that
by topynate 4y ago
Not for Curiosity and Perseverance, which use RTGs. NASA like RTGs for their big, power-hungry vehicles, and use solar panels on the smaller ones. I guess that one problem is that any brush or compressed air mechanism would have to be particularly light to justify itself, else you might as well design around an RTG instead of solar panels.
Rotorcraft are a special case though, because they come with powerful fans attached. Maybe the next rotorcraft will have a way to direct its prop wash over its solar panels.