Dust Accumulation and Cleaning of the MER Solar Arrays

Details Dust Accumulation and Cleaning of the MER Solar Arrays Dust Accumulation and Cleaning of the MER Solar Arrays

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.p53e1559h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #P53E-1559

Physics

[0305] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Aerosols And Particles, [5405] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Atmospheres, [6225] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mars

Scientific paper

The solar arrays of the two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity, were expected to accumulate so much dust after 90 Martian days (sols) that they could no longer provide enough energy to guarantee continued surface operations. Instead, due in part to low dust accumulation rates and numerous dust cleaning events, they have carried out surface operations for over 2200 sols each. During this time period, the rovers experienced four Martian winters and several dust storms. Because the sources of solar energy loss are known, the solar array energy output offers a tool to scientifically estimate the loading and aeolian removal of dust from the solar arrays each sol. We will discuss the accumulation of dust on the solar panels as a proxy for dust movement on the Martian surface over the last 6 years.

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