Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Features


	+ Mars Home + Rovers Home

Spotlight On Mars - Image

Wanted: Space-Age Dust Removal

April 20, 2008

This animated gif is a combination of two still images. The first image shows a closeup view in black and white of the junction where two very clean solar cells intersect. The second image shows a closeup view of two solar cells heavily coated with dust; much of the dust has aggregated into tiny clumps all over the surface.

If Mars had an on-line Web site for ads, one of them might say something like this: "Wanted: Gentle space-age dust removal system to clean solar cells without leaving grit behind. Please direct inquiries to NASA."

NASA's Spirit rover has accumulated a lot of dust during four years of exploring Mars, especially following last year's dust storms. Only about one-third of incoming sunlight is able to penetrate dust on the rover's solar panels to be converted to electricity. As a result, Spirit is experiencing the lowest energy levels to date and accumulating a backlog of data waiting to be transmitted to Earth. The only available cleaning agent would be a timely gust of Martian wind!

Microscopic image credits:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS


Higher Res Images:

	Full Size Still Image	Full Size Still Image