Ideas for a solar panel cleaner Options

[helvick]

The simplest solution is to increase solar panel area. The long term experience with Opportunity and Spirit has shown that over a 2 year mission power from a solar panel can be expected to remain above 20% of ideal mission start capability if carefully managed. In addition worst case power performance occurs during dust storms when Tau is high so adding solar panels to non horizontal or even fully inverted surfaces is useful in terms of providing additional power under worst case conditions. Even cells located on the underside of solar panel wings would generate useful power when Tau is above 1/2. Developing lighter solar cells would be a more useful investment in my opinion.

[stevesliva]

Wipers to cover all of the arrays on a vehicle would be complex, large and heavy. You want a non-moving, low mass, low volume solution. I reported on one in development at the IAC in '06 - something along these lines..
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.js...rnumber=1391965

(Bump of an old but relevant thread)

News of work along the same lines:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/26116/page1/

The technology was developed for future rover missions to Mars, but it could work here on Earth to keep solar panels operating at peak capacity. It uses electrostatic charge to repel dust and force it to the edges of the panels. It can remove 90 percent of the dust on a solar panel in a two-minute cycle, says Malay Mazumder, a research professor at Boston University who led the work.