Title :
Dust on Mars: Materials Adherence Experiment results from Mars Pathfinder
Author :
Landis, Geoffrey A. ; Jenkins, Phillip P.
Author_Institution :
Ohio Aerosp. Inst., NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
fDate :
29 Sep-3 Oct 1997
Abstract :
Mars Pathfinder is the first solar-powered probe to operate on the surface of Mars. Pathfinder consists of a lander and a small, autonomous, six-wheel solar-powered rover, “Sojourner”. The Pathfinder spacecraft reflects NASA´s new philosophy of exploiting new technologies to reduce mission cost. The Materials Adherence Experiment on Pathfinder was designed to measure the degradation of solar arrays due to dust settling out of the atmosphere and blocking light to the solar array, lowering the array power output. The MAE measurements indicate steady dust accumulation at a rate of about 0.28% per day. This value is consistent with the performance of the solar arrays, which have decreased in power at an estimated rate of 0.29% per day
Keywords :
Mars; dust; solar cell arrays; space power generation; Mars Pathfinder; Mars surface; Materials Adherence Experiment; NASA; Sojourner; array power output lowering; dust; solar arrays degradation; solar-powered probe; steady dust accumulation; Aircraft manufacture; Atmosphere; Atmospheric measurements; Costs; Degradation; Mars; Optical arrays; Power measurement; Probes; Space technology;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3767-0
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1997.654224
