Why is not there a tool to scrub the photo voltaic panels on Mars rovers?

Engineers definitely may design such a system, however including it might require sacrificing house or weight meant for science.

NASA’s Mars InSight lander was powered by two photo voltaic panels, one in all which is imaged right here. The mission ended when the panels grew to become so dust-covered that they might not generate adequate energy to maintain the craft. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Inevitably, Mars rovers or landers get coated with mud and the photo voltaic panels now not perform, ending the mission. Why doesn’t NASA construct in a mechanism to scrub the photo voltaic panels?

Mike Hunnicutt
Woodridge, Illinois

This can be a nice query and to me, no less than, the reply is in no way apparent.

It’s not that NASA engineers can’t design a brush or a wiper or an air-blasting system to scrub mud off photo voltaic panels or different Mars rover or lander elements — that type of engineering isn’t rocket science! The problem actually is concerning the constraints on deep-space missions; many engineers refer to those constraints because the “useful resource field.” That’s, all missions are constrained to suit right into a metaphorical field outlined by sources like mass, bodily dimensions, energy, schedule, knowledge quantity, and price. The dimensions of the field is determined by many components, like which rocket will launch the mission and what finances is out there to the group. And whereas the sources will be moved round and traded contained in the field, the entire system can’t go “out of the field.”

So, for instance, if a group desires so as to add a mud wiper blade to a rover photo voltaic panel, the engineers will say, “Certain, we are able to try this! However what do you need to commerce to accommodate the mass, quantity, energy wants, and price of that wiper system?” Hmm… Would the group be OK, for instance, buying and selling a backup radio transmitter for that wiper system? Or dropping one of many science devices for it? In my expertise, we’ve determined to not make such trades as a result of we felt assured that the rovers may survive their required minimal lifetime even with dusty photo voltaic panels. And, whereas debatable, to most of us concerned that seems to have been a suitable commerce for missions like Spirit, Alternative, Perception, and others.

We regularly hear about folks or teams being praised for considering “outdoors the field.” However in deep-space mission programs engineering, the secret’s truly to attempt to maximize science whereas staying inside the (useful resource) field!

Jim Bell
Principal Investigator for Mars 2020 Mastcam-Z, Deputy Principal Investigator for Science for Mars Science Laboratory Mastcam, Arizona State College, Tempe, Arizona