News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by hn_throwaway_99 on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @10:53AM (#34082262)
The tweet thread itself doesn't say that using self cleaning panels would be impossible, or even that hard, just that it's easier and more cost effective to just bring bigger panels. Not of your bullet points seem that relevant honestly - using an equivalent of a leaf blower would do the trick. But any added complexity to a mission just means there are more failure points.
Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by jws on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:40PM (#34083793)
With an atmospheric density 1/150th that of Earth, the engineering of a leaf blower might be tricky. Clearly the atmosphere can move dust, but you might hit speed of sound problems in your turbine.

Someone should spend a couple years doing some PhD work on Martian dust blowing turbine designs, but not burn out completely so they can write a 1000 word, interesting blog post with some pretty pictures for me to consume.

Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by rob74 on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @03:54PM (#34086258)
Also, you would have to carefully weigh if using the blower would not consume more energy than you stand to gain by clearing the panels...
Re:‘My power’s low’: NASA’s Insight Mars lander prepares to ... by antifa on Thursday December 22, 2022 @10:32AM (#34094323)
Couldn't your wind blower get clogged with dust? I'm not a dust expert.