Instrument Context Camera (ICC) Dust Cap

[beeman]

I notice that images taken from the ICC  on Sol 26, 23rd December 2018, appear to still have the dust cap on the camera?
Is this to be expected or has the dust cap not been removed?

[Bubbinski]

I think the dust cap has been removed but there was still dust on the lens somehow. I’m wondering if it can be cleaned by wind or by the robot arm shaking the camera.

[Hungry4info3]

The camera's ability to see is more than adequate for the task it was designed for. No attempts to clean it with the arm will be attempted because there's risk involved for no real gain.

[Blackstar]

I heard (somebody could check on this) that the camera was designed for MER. It was qualified for that vehicle and used on this lander. MER did not need to worry about dust being thrown up on top of the vehicle during landing. They could have re-engineered it, but that would have cost more money and added new risk. What they got is good enough and it works fine. So this appears to have been a good design choice.

[ccdengr]

I heard (somebody could check on this) that the camera was designed for MER.

The ICC is a spare MSL Hazcam with its sensor swapped out for a Bayer-color version.  The dust covers for MSL covered all of the Hazcams and I don't know how common that design is with the single-camera dust cover on the ICC.  Obviously dust got into ICC; the dust distribution was radically different between MSL and InSight because of the engine configuration.  Maybe the cover design was deficient, maybe they just got unlucky.  At any rate, it does what is required.