3 ms·

One issue that plagued the mars rovers so far is the buildup of dust on the solar panels. Could the helicopter help by flying over the rover, thus blowing away

One issue that plagued the mars rovers so far is the buildup of dust on the solar panels. Could the helicopter help by flying over the rover, thus blowing away the dust?

addingnumbers 4y ago
Perseverance (the rover) has its own "Gaseous Dust Removal Tool (GDRT)" that puffs compressed nitrogen to remove dust from samples before analyzing them, not sure if it can turn that back around on its own panels though...
- space_fountain 4y ago
  Perseverance does not use solar power. Instead it has a generator using the slow decay of radioactive material. The solar panel problem was more with earlier rovers
  - addingnumbers 4y ago
    Well, that's convenient. It looks like maybe Ingenuity's panel could use a little blast of nitrogen though: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/ingenuity_gif.gif https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_f...
- FredPret 4y ago
  I unsarcastically love the super-serious names military/space folks come up with for mundane things like a dust blower
ragebol 4y ago
Nope. They're not risking Ingenuity (a tech demo that works very well) crashing into Perseverance. Also: no need, Perseverance doesn't have solar panels but an Radioactive Thermal Generator. Also, the dust is static
- Fatnino 4y ago
  The dust can also be magnetic. Ingenuity has a color calibration plate [1] on top and it's protected from dust by a ring of magnets. Here [2] it is in situ on sol 2 on Mars. Clearly visible are the magnetic patterns made by the layer of dust that was kicked up at landing. [1] https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25433/mastcam-zs-calibration-target/ https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25433/mastcam-zs-calibration... [2] https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ZLF_0002_0667131328_423FDR_N0010052ZCAM00012_0630LUJ01 https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ZLF_000...
- superjan 4y ago
  Ok sorry for the noob question. I guessed no, just because of the risks, but now I see there is no point trying.

One issue that plagued the mars rovers so far is the buildup of dust on the solar panels. Could the helicopter help by flying over the rover, thus blowing away the dust?

addingnumbers 4y ago

Perseverance (the rover) has its own "Gaseous Dust Removal Tool (GDRT)" that puffs compressed nitrogen to remove dust from samples before analyzing them, not sure if it can turn that back around on its own panels though...

space_fountain 4y ago
Perseverance does not use solar power. Instead it has a generator using the slow decay of radioactive material. The solar panel problem was more with earlier rovers
- addingnumbers 4y ago
  Well, that's convenient. It looks like maybe Ingenuity's panel could use a little blast of nitrogen though: https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/ingenuity_gif.gif https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_f...
FredPret 4y ago
I unsarcastically love the super-serious names military/space folks come up with for mundane things like a dust blower

ragebol 4y ago

Nope. They're not risking Ingenuity (a tech demo that works very well) crashing into Perseverance. Also: no need, Perseverance doesn't have solar panels but an Radioactive Thermal Generator. Also, the dust is static

Fatnino 4y ago
The dust can also be magnetic. Ingenuity has a color calibration plate [1] on top and it's protected from dust by a ring of magnets. Here [2] it is in situ on sol 2 on Mars. Clearly visible are the magnetic patterns made by the layer of dust that was kicked up at landing. [1] https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25433/mastcam-zs-calibration-target/ https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25433/mastcam-zs-calibration... [2] https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ZLF_0002_0667131328_423FDR_N0010052ZCAM00012_0630LUJ01 https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/ZLF_000...
superjan 4y ago
Ok sorry for the noob question. I guessed no, just because of the risks, but now I see there is no point trying.