NASA's Mars InSight trips into safe mode and ESA's Sentinel-1B gives scientists the silent treatment While there were whoops and cheers for the James Webb Space Telescope, other missions on Mars and in orbit around the Earth have fared less well in recent weeks. First is NASA's InSight lander, which arrived on Mars in 2018 and, despite the failure of its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package probe to dig into the surface …
InSight is in the hands of the Martian winds. Sentinel-1B is still being diagnosed.
But at least NASA's new Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer (IXPE) just completed commissioning and is targeting the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, which it is using for calibration.
I agree that it's outlived it's expected lifespan however a significant duststorm could have happened a week into the mission ... Off the top of my head, the ability to pull a simple rubber/carbon fibre/whatever cord across the surface of the panel to remove, say, 30% of mission-threatening build up and restore significant power levels would be simple, cheap and light with (potentially) mission saving abilities ... even if you could only do it once. Heck, if they can transport the mass of a hammer drill to Mars that even a numpty like me predicted wouldn't work except in perfect conditions, they can afford transport a tiny motor and a piece of string ...
Dragging something across the surface could leave scratches, which will both reduce panel performance and hold more dust, further reducing panel performance.
A fan to periodically blow away surface dust doesn't seem difficult or heavy. The air may be thin, but it's still there. Given known problems of dust build-up affecting previous missions I'm amazed there's no such kit on InSight, but then I'm not a rocket surgeon.
The vibrations are hell on the connections, not a serious problem on Earth where replacement is easy but on Mars not so good.
I would have thought the dust would be charged, they could perhaps repel some of the dust by applying a like charge to the surface of the panels.
The panels are 2.2m diameter, each. On Earth with convenient thick air you would need a large, steerable high-power fan to clean them which would probably not be very effective due to electrostatic effects. On Mars with inconvenient thin air you would need a really huge high-power fan, which would also probably not be very effective for same reason.
Oh yes: you would need one of these for each panel unless you plan to strap it to magic robot arm which you then also would need.
And also when you need to deploy this enormous heavy thing where does the power come from? Because the answer is 'not from the solar panels'. Perhaps you would propose carrying a large, heavy, battery to Mars to run it?
Do you not think that, perhaps, martian explorer engineering people have thought of these ideas and done sums on them?
Although, the available traffic seems a little light to me.
There are traffic lights in suburban parts of London where the traffic can be so light (for short periods each day) that there are no other vehicles, no pedestrians and yet they change to red just as you are approaching. They then take 3 minutes to change back to green. I believe it is all part of the government's levelling up agenda - making sure that there is equal pollution everywhere. Why don't they just go to flashing amber in both directions (and save 50% power) when traffic is light?
I've wondered about that. Do the houses have their heating and air conditioning turned off while they are stationary too?
Although admittedly i probably thought of it here, where in summer the temperatures inside a car go above 45 within a minute of turning off the aircon, and similarly in winter when it's -15°C outside, you'd freeze not long after turning off the engine (which also turns off the suplemental heating.
I have heard that batteries are now capable of providing enough power not only to start cars but to run fangled thing I think is called 'air adjustment' for a time. Do not know my self as still run traditional car: start with crank, magneto, acetylene carbide lighting, no battery. Is fine so long as lights do not explode which they often do.
Poor Zanzibar, his life is so grey, meaningless and utilitarian. It is unbearable for him. All he can think to reduce his mental anguish is to try and force his grey nightmare onto all other people: if he is miserable so should everyone be.
Of course as a grey utiilitarian he does not believe in mental anguish, still less in joy or the joy of discovery: all is grey, all is flat, all is dead for him.
Poor Zanzibar, so sad we are for him.
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