mystery of mars rover's 'carwash' rolls on
Mystery of Mars rover's 'carwash' rolls onPremium
* 25 December 2004 * Philip Cohen * Magazine issue 2479
Opportunity has now had its solar panels "cleaned" on at least four separate occasions - NASA remain stumped as to exactly how
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity seems to have stumbled into something akin to a car wash that has left its solar panels much cleaner than those of its twin rover, Spirit. A Martian car wash would account for a series of unexpected boosts in the electrical power produced by Opportunity's solar panels.
The rovers landed on Mars in January with solar cells capable of providing more than 900 watt-hours of electricity per day. Spirit's output has dropped to about 400 watt-hours, partly because Martian dust has caked its solar panels. Opportunity's output also declined at first - to around 500 watt-hours - but over the past six months it has regained power (New Scientist, 30 October, p 6). Lately, its solar cells have been delivering just over 900 watt-hours.
Rover team leader Jim Erickson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told New Scientist that a process still not understood ...
