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Sundial sitting on solar panels, A question about power requirements
karolp
post Sep 2 2006, 03:03 PM
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I am currently digging in the Planetary Radio archives and heared Bill Nye saying that the Mars sundial sitting on the solar panels takes about 1 to 2 percent of power by covering them. The sundial itself is of course a great outreach idea and probably does not affect the mission as Bill said. BUT: what if the 2 percent were the LAST 2 percent left? What is the minimum power requirement for MERs? And namely a) for being able to rove cool.gif for being able to use the RAT c) for being able to sit calmly and just send data to the orbiters. No intention to question the "Two Worlds One Sun" thing, I really love it. Just made me curious about the power as it might be relevant in speculations about their expected lifespan.


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Jeff7
post Sep 4 2006, 04:12 AM
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But is the "mast" portion of the sundial truly necessary? Aren't the colored portions, mirrors, and B&W circles the truly important parts?


The real problem is that the fans aren't good enough.

"Mars is very dusty; it was thought that dust coating the solar panels may kill the rovers by choking out the sunlight. Designers worried about it so much, the rovers actually have small fans designed to blow dust off the panels. But the fans have gotten a boost."

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bergadder
post Sep 4 2006, 05:00 AM
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QUOTE (Jeff7 @ Sep 4 2006, 12:12 AM) *
The real problem is that the fans aren't good enough.



You do know that the last part about DD is going to drive our " Administrator" nuts... cool.gif
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Posts in this topic
- karolp   Sundial sitting on solar panels   Sep 2 2006, 03:03 PM
- - tfisher   The "sundials" are the most photographed...   Sep 2 2006, 03:29 PM
- - dot.dk   And the HGA and the PMA takes up much more than 2 ...   Sep 2 2006, 04:01 PM
|- - karolp   And I was not suggesting to toss'em as worthle...   Sep 3 2006, 04:31 PM
|- - climber   QUOTE (karolp @ Sep 3 2006, 06:31 PM) And...   Sep 3 2006, 04:46 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (climber @ Sep 3 2006, 12:46 PM) Do...   Sep 5 2006, 12:51 PM
- - djellison   2% of 280 Whrs = 5.6 Whrs... Via UHF - data costs...   Sep 3 2006, 04:47 PM
- - Jeff7   But is the "mast" portion of the sundial...   Sep 4 2006, 04:12 AM
|- - bergadder   QUOTE (Jeff7 @ Sep 4 2006, 12:12 AM) The ...   Sep 4 2006, 05:00 AM
||- - climber   QUOTE (bergadder @ Sep 4 2006, 07:00 AM) ...   Sep 4 2006, 07:26 AM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (Jeff7 @ Sep 4 2006, 05:12 AM) But ...   Sep 4 2006, 07:29 AM
||- - Jeff7   QUOTE (djellison @ Sep 4 2006, 03:29 AM) ...   Sep 4 2006, 04:55 PM
|- - RNeuhaus   QUOTE (Jeff7 @ Sep 3 2006, 11:12 PM) The ...   Sep 4 2006, 02:37 PM
|- - ElkGroveDan   QUOTE (Jeff7 @ Sep 3 2006, 08:12 PM) The ...   Sep 5 2006, 02:55 PM
- - djellison   No no - there ARE no blowers on the rovers - that...   Sep 4 2006, 03:20 PM
|- - RNeuhaus   QUOTE (djellison @ Sep 4 2006, 10:20 AM) ...   Sep 4 2006, 04:40 PM
- - djellison   Top of the list in priority to be returned, but no...   Sep 5 2006, 02:08 PM
- - MaxSt   No way the sundial can shadow 5-10 cells from tota...   Sep 6 2006, 03:20 PM
- - djellison   It takes approx 2% of the deck area physically - a...   Sep 6 2006, 03:27 PM


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