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Ideas for a solar panel cleaner
hendric
post May 22 2008, 05:55 PM
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Just had an idea for a solar panel cleaner. Place a small, black tank on top of the deck. At the bottom of the tank is a one-way valve pointing into the tank. At the side of the tank is a pressure-relief valve tied to the dust removal tubes.

  1. Starting at daybreak, the tank starts filled with cold, dense atmo.
  2. As the tank warms, the pressure builds within the tank.
  3. Once the pressure reaches the cut-off of the pressure relief valve, the valve triggers and opens full-bore until the pressure difference reaches zero, and it then closes.
  4. Pressurized air comes out of the tank and blows off dust from dust-sensitive devices, camera, solar panels, view ports, etc.
  5. At night fall, the tank cools, lowering the pressure within the tank until it is below the outside pressure.
  6. The one way valve opens, refilling the tank with colder, denser air.
Because the tank isn't required to hold high pressures, it can be very light. There is about 100 degree C difference between day/night, meaning during the day the tank should reach about 50% higher pressure than night time. The pressure difference can be increased by adding a heating element.

This removes the need for storing a gas for the cleaning, as well as any need for a pump.

Ready...Set...Rip 'er apart!


--------------------
Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks
--
"The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C Clarke
Mother Nature is the final inspector of all quality.
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Alex Chapman
post May 23 2008, 07:51 PM
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The real answer is just to make the solar panels large enough so that they produce enough power throughout the mission even with dust accumulation. For long duration missions go nuke and have it powered by an RTG, they really are the way to go.

Those are the engineering choices Nasa have made and personally I think they are the best.

Next to having an astronaut with a soft bristle brush brush that is.
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Reed
post May 29 2008, 03:42 AM
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QUOTE (Alex Chapman @ May 23 2008, 11:51 AM) *
The real answer is just to make the solar panels large enough so that they produce enough power throughout the mission even with dust accumulation. For long duration missions go nuke and have it powered by an RTG, they really are the way to go.

RTGs are unfortunately expensive, and fuel is getting scarce. The US has stopped production of Pu-238, and AFAIK the Russians are shutting theirs down as well. From what I understand, we have enough available for the currently planned missions but little beyond that.

Thinking about panel cleaning, it seems to me you don't need to run it very frequently. From the MER experience, averaging once every 3 months would probably be plenty. If you only need a few tens of cycles total, simple filters may be sufficient to make Hendrics suggestion workable from a dust POV. You'd need to be able to isolate it (lock the valves closed and cover the filters), but that should fairly straightforward. OTOH, at that level of use an expendable source might be competitive. If you use something that is liquid or solid at modest pressures, you can get a large volume without wasting too much mass on pressure vessels. CO2 seems like the obvious choice, although you may have to expend some effort keeping it in the desired state.

Larger panels are clearly the simpler (= lower technical risk) way, but being able to clean off after a major dust storm has a certain attraction.
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