Remaining Mer Solar Power Extrapolation, helvick's Power Chart :) Options

[djellison]

the fact that sudden rover death is likely at some point

The altenative being rover imortality

Doug

[jamescanvin]

The altenative being rover imortality

We can only hope!

Once we have a manned base on mars they could be tele-operated in real time and be much more productive.

Maybe around Sol 7000?

James.

[mars loon]

12/5/2005

Significant New Power Information from JPL is here:

PIA03607: Solar Power on Mars

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03607

Original Caption Released with Image:

This chart illustrates the variation in available solar power for each of NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers over the course of approximately two Mars years. Two factors affect the amount of available power: the tilt of Mars' axis and the eccentricity of the Mars' orbit about the sun.

The horizontal scale is the number of Martian days (sols) after the Jan. 4, 2004, (Universal Time) landing of Spirit at Mars' Gusev Crater. The vertical scale on the right indicates the amount of available solar power as a ratio of the amount available at the equator when Mars is closest to the sun (perihelion). The red line indicates power availability at Spirit's landing site (Gusev). The blue line indicates power availability at Opportunity's landing site (Meridiani).

The vertical scale on the right applies to the dotted line, indicating the latitude north or south of Mars' equator where the noon sun is overhead at different times of the Martian year.
and more here

PIA03608: Solar-Panel Dust Accumulation and Cleanings

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03608

Original Caption Released with Image:

Air-fall dust accumulates on the solar panels of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the solar arrays. Pre-launch models predicted steady dust accumulation. However, the rovers have been blessed with occasional wind events that clear significant amounts of dust from the solar panels.

This graph shows the effects of those panel-cleaning events on the amount of electricity generated by Spirit's solar panels. The horizontal scale is the number of Martian days (sols) after Spirit's Jan. 4, 2005, (Universal Time) landing on Mars. The vertical scale indicates output from the rover's solar panels as a fraction of the amount produced when the clean panels first opened. Note that the gradual declines are interrupted by occasional sharp increases, such as a dust-cleaning event on sol 420.

[helvick]

Sweet!

[mars loon]

Sweet!

Lots of new info especially for your fine efforts

[bigdipper]

[Meant to post in tech forum. Sorry.]

Helvick- is there a new version of the power chart available? ( notice some discussion about power in the Spirit at winter quarters thread.

Doug - can we move this thread to the tech forum? (I was confused by it being in the oppy thread - newbie mistake?)

[MizarKey]

PIA03607: Solar Power on Mars
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03607

PIA03608: Solar-Panel Dust Accumulation and Cleanings
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03608

I thought about starting a new thread, but this one has such good info in it already...

I've looked back at Sol 948 pancam Downsampled EDR images and compared them to Sol 1156 pancam Downsampled EDR images and it's hard to see much difference. There may be some cleaning there, but has power improved over what was projected in the charts linked above?