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A comment on ‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to sign off. Parent comment

Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by rwmj on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @08:34AM (#34080501)
Some kind of passive self-cleaning solar-cell cover might work. You could direct and shape the wind so it blows more strongly over the cell surface to clean it, or since the dust is charged[1] you might use a conductive layer with the same charge. (Although I'm sure engineers have thought long and hard about this already.)

[1] Moon, but similar: https://youtu.be/0k9wIsKKgqo?t=378

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Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by blululu on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @09:47AM (#34081352)
The static charges necessarily come in pairs so the dust is charged both positive and negative, but the surface also gets charged as dust hits it so trying to blow it off does not necessarily work in the long term. Static dust is a real pain in a low water environment.
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Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by rzzzt on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @11:33AM (#34082850)
An infinite loop of transparent film, similar to what the in-car F1 cameras have?

Edit: huh, apparently it is one-time use and does not loop around.

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