The Storm, Dust storm of 2007 Options

[dvandorn]

We should rename IMG2PNG as "The Bjorn Supremacy."

Grrrrooooooaaaaannnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-the other Doug

[Juramike]

I still think a small compressor, a thin-walled tank (since it doesn't have to hold that much pressure) and a series of lightweight tubes arrayed at crucial spots around the solar panels makes the most sense. A couple of kg mass investment lets you create your own cleaning events.

-the other Doug

GREAT IDEA!!

BONUS: Mount it on a robot arm, and you could also use it to gently blow away dust from RAT'd rocks, blow away dust in bad places (or wheels or vehicle cams), or even blow down into sand layers (digging down), and also check out how crusted the surfaces are, or even the mobility of surface gravels, berries, sand grains, and dust grains.

-Mike

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

GREAT IDEA!!

It might be a "GREAT IDEA!!" but whether it's practical or even doable is another matter. There are many great ideas (and an equal or greater number of bad ones) that never make it off the drawing boards or past the animations. Even if one accepts "the other" Doug's characterization of such a cleaning system as merely costing "[a] couple of kg mass," bear in mind that in this business, ounces count.

[Juramike]

Too true.

How about a tiltable or foldable solar array? A few flicks or turning it to vertical might be able to shake dust off?

A tilting solution for the array would probably be much smaller and lightweight to add on than a compressor and tank: (worm gear drive?, few bonus hinges and struts?). The will allow some directional tilt (not in all directions). This could also allow the future rover to stay reasonably in place rather than having to find the perfect slope to park. (It might still have to swivel in place to get the right angle in conjunction with tilting the array).

There'd have to be a decent cost/benefit analysis done to see if a solution would justify the weight. But at least we could use the number of times the current rovers needed to be moved into favorable position to help figure the benefit.

-Mike

[tty]

Building a small, light, low-powered and very reliable compressor that will work in sub-antarctic temperatures and what would be considered a pretty fair laboratory vacuum here on Earth is NOT a trivial engineering task.

[djellison]

How about a tiltable or foldable solar array?

My TV screen is vertical...and the dust doesn't fall of. Nor will it fall off if I shake it. Same would probably be true of the rovers.

The answers are RTG's when you can use them - and potentially electrostatic methods when you can't - which have no moving parts at all

Doug

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The answers are RTG's when you can use them - and potentially electrostatic methods when you can't - which have no moving parts at all

A pithy way of restating this is "a good solution to a problem is to avoid the problem."

Or, as the stale joke goes:

Patient: "Doctor, it hurts my arm when I do this [raises arm]."

Doctor: "Then don't raise your arm. Okay, we're finished here. That'll be $200 for the medical consult."

[ElkGroveDan]

My TV screen is vertical...and the dust doesn't fall of. Nor will it fall off if I shake it.

If you have ceiling fans in your home this problem is even more evident. I have the one in my bedroom running at full speed most nights and it builds up thick dust every couple of weeks. Even the substantial centrifugal forces on the ends of the blades seem to have a negligible effect on the dust. I was making this very observation to my wife this past weekend as I climbed a ladder to clean it off. She said, "You are the only one I know who would notice or care about something like that."

[Juramike]

My TV screen is vertical...and the dust doesn't fall of. Nor will it fall off if I shake it. Same would probably be true of the rovers.

The answers are RTG's when you can use them - and potentially electrostatic methods when you can't - which have no moving parts at all

Doug

Hmmm. Good points.

But even with an RTG, there will be some dust accumulation where you don't want it: camera lenses (as we're seeing), and in all those itchy nooks and crannies.

-Mike

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

She said, "You are the only one I know who would notice or care about something like that."

If it were me, my wife would have been more surprised by the mere fact that I was actually cleaning off the fan.

[ilbasso]

Fans need to be cleaned?

[djellison]

Got a desktop PC that's been sat on the floor for > a month? Go and look at it's PSU exhaust fan. FILTHY.

Doug

[Juramike]

According to the Mrs., I'm only able to notice dust on or orbiting planets other than Earth.

-Mike

[Del Palmer]

Got a desktop PC that's been sat on the floor for > a month? Go and look at it's PSU exhaust fan. FILTHY.

OK, I looked and yes, it is filthy, but then it has been running 24/7 for almost 12 months*. If you find your fans are filthy with dust after only a month, you may want to acquaint yourself with Mr. Hoover or Mrs. Dyson a little more often.


* Its annual shutdown for dust clean-out is scheduled for the first Monday every September. This year, that falls on Sept. 3 - my birthday. What fun I will have.

[Del Palmer]

But even with an RTG, there will be some dust accumulation where you don't want it: camera lenses (as we're seeing), and in all those itchy nooks and crannies.

It's worth remembering that an RTG's output can be degraded by dust accumulation on the radiator fins. On MSL, the RTG is angled to (hopefully) reduce such deposition.