Why do Mars vehicles have no WindscreenWiper or windshield-wiper or solar-brush?

[JulesVerneATV]

Why don't Mars vehicles have wipers? or a duster or a robotic self cleaning brush? I tried using the search function and it seems there hasn't been much of a discussion of wipers on this site other than Shuttle did not have windshield wipers and the tv shows and movies got it wrong again.

Solar panels provide important power supply and need to be washed. The Martian 'Dust' has killed many spacecraft exploring the surface of Mars. Space vehicles are unlikely to have access to spare parts even with 3-d printing on future colonies. Deterioration of a vehicle is something which could have been prevented, if humans are to live on colonies keeping Solar Panels clean might be a matter of life and death. Dust has killed many of those multi- million Dollar vehicles on Mars. Why don't vehicles have their own solar panel cleaning mechanisms like you see wipers clean windows?


Martian dust seems adhere firmly to the panels because of static electricity and humidity level, making the removal through Martian winds very difficult.  Titan if it is to be colonized in the far future has a number of energy options, nuclear power, windmills could be feasible, a functional colony would have access to hydro carbons and produce oxygen. At Saturn's Moon Titan 'Solar' is unlikely to be a main source of power and even if solar is used a vehicle might not need windscreen or windshield wipers, a large Train or Spaceplane in the style of Dragonfly Titan space probe with extra 'Solar' panels as back up might be cleaned naturally by the rains of Titan. At Jupiter's Moons thin layers of dust or dust raised by moving vehicles impact-generated dust cloud around. The ESA Mars mission Rosalind Franklin rover did not seem to have wipers either, this ExoMars ESA Rover mission was scheduled to launch with the Russian Roscosmos but was later postponed with sanctions Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was supposed to be part of the NASA-European MSR mission, ESA has signed a new agreement with NASA to procure a US launch. The Chinese also have interest in Mars and the outer solar system,  China claimed its tilting non-stick solar panels on its Zhurong Rover would be less vulnerable to 'Dust' but dust also killed its Rover as it did to previous NASA / JPL missions. The Asteroids are probably covered in loose rubble or dust, NASA's DART impactor blasted over 900 000 kilograms of dust off of the asteroid, rays of impact debris streaming from Dimorphos impact seen by LICIACube and  Hubble, James Webb, Lucy. There is a lot of Dust on Earth's Moon, some think in the future Ganymede might one day have humans and some even think Jovian moon Callisto is the best body in the solar system to consider for future human colonization. 

It seems very strange no agency built a wind screen wiper or wind shield wiper since a lot of vehicles have fallen victim to 'Dust' on Mars which is thought to be a toxic health hazard to a future human colony but maybe less toxic than Lunar-Dust

Photovoltaic (PV) systems need regular washing, On Earth the windscreen wiper or windshield wiper is in common use, it cleans the window to help the person driving the vehicle see where they are going. It can also be used to clean Solar Panels. A human explorer on Mars might follow the idea of electronic manufacturing and pharmaceutical 'clean rooms' actually started in the later years of the Ranger program, an dust getting into a human town / colony could destroy experiments, create contaminants that would be a problem for people, animals or plants inside the colony, the Ford or Toyota or Audi or whatever car company wants to colonize space with vehicle, maybe the car company would build a space 'car wash' a vehicle would be cleaned before parking inside the garage / airlock of the colony. Cleaned Moon Dust might be recycled into manufacturing materials, Solar cells made from moon dust.

Brushes and Wipers offer a simple solution on Earth

Innovative Solar Panel Cleaning Tools: Wipers, Brushes, and Robots Explained
https://www.bigwitenergy.com/post/innovative-solar-panel-cleaning-tools-wipers-brushes-and-robots-explained

If we do one day land in the far future land people with Rovers on Venus or have some floating village in the atmosphere, then Power generation on Venus is likely to be different, perhaps the use of currents or wind radioisotope power, however there is still some potential use of 'Solar' panels so there might be some type of 'Dust' or 'Ash' Atmosphere of Venus, again the need for a brush or windscreen wiper or windshield wiper to clean Solar panels. Antarctica or high altitude Weather on Mount Everest with its cold temperature, the movements of ships and aircraft might offer Tips for Maintaining Windscreen Wipers

the use of 'Water' as a cleaning fluid might be seen as wasteful because Water is rare on Mars.

Electrodynamic Dust Shield (EDS)

NASA proves its electric moon dust shield works on the lunar surface
https://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/nasa-proves-its-electric-moon-dust-shield-works-on-the-lunar-surface

"This milestone marks a significant step toward sustaining long-term lunar and interplanetary operations."

On the Moons of the Solar system it is thought an Electromagnetic Dust shield might work which repels or attracts the 'Dust' stop it when it will adhere on people's suits and vehicle surfaces.

[AmigaClone]

Using historical launch vehicles, the decision on whether or not to include a windscreen to protect solar panels and a method to remove the dust from that windscreen boiled down to:

Are we willing to trade x kg of instruments for the same mass that uses an untrested method to prevent martian dust from accumulating and include a method to remove dust when that failed.

So far, the decision has been to use that mass for instruments and just risk the possibility of the mission not reaching it's planed duration.

[Proponent]

I recall a lecture by Geoff Landis of NASA Glenn, who had a dust experiment on, IIRC, one or both of Spirit and Opportunity. It was in effect a photocell with a wiper. Rather than the wiper being swept across the cell, however, the glass plate covering the cell was rotated back and forth under a fixed wiper when it was time to remove dust.

Early strategy with respect to dust on Mars rovers was simply to make the photovoltaic panels sufficiently large that even with dust they would still be producing sufficient power at the design horizon (of 90 days?). It turned out, however, that naturally-occurring dust devils limit the amount of dust build up.

All IIRC.

[Jim]

It seems very strange no agency built a wind screen wiper or wind shield wiper since a lot of vehicles have fallen victim to 'Dust' on Mars which is thought to be a toxic health hazard to a future human colony but maybe less toxic than Lunar-Dust

no vehicles have fallen victim to dust.

No wipers are needed because dust on solar arrays is no big deal

[JulesVerneATV]

Can I post an Elon Musk 'everything is fine' meme?

Mars lander losing power because of dust on solar panels
https://abcnews.go.com

[JulesVerneATV]

hopefully we get archives on all this stuff in case one day big company or government websites go down

2007
https://biomedicaloptics.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/6527/65270E/Ultralight-dust-wiper-mechanism-for-operation-in-Mars/10.1117/12.716924.short
Ultralight dust wiper mechanism for operation in Mars

PDF
https://esmats.eu/esmatspapers/pastpapers/pdfs/2007/fernand.pdf

[DanClemmensen]

hopefully we get archives on all this stuff in case one day big company or government websites go down

2007
https://biomedicaloptics.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/6527/65270E/Ultralight-dust-wiper-mechanism-for-operation-in-Mars/10.1117/12.716924.short
Ultralight dust wiper mechanism for operation in Mars

PDF
https://esmats.eu/esmatspapers/pastpapers/pdfs/2007/fernand.pdf

Archived at the Internet Archive:
    https://web.archive.org/web/20140327065356/http://www.esmats.eu:80/esmatspapers/pastpapers/pdfs/2007/fernand.pdf

The don't manage to archive absolutely everything, but they do manage to get a large percentage.

[Jim]

Can I post an Elon Musk 'everything is fine' meme?

Mars lander losing power because of dust on solar panels
https://abcnews.go.com

Everything is fine.  There was no problem.  and you link didn't work.

[Jim]

show me a mission limited by dust

Insight Planned: 709 sols (2 years)[1]Final: 1440 sols (4 years, 19 days)
Phoenix   90 martian sols (planned) 157 martian sols (actual)

MER A Planned: 90 sols (~92 days) Actual: 2,208 sols (2,269 days),
MER B Planned: 90 sols (~92 days)  Actual: 5,352 sols (5,498 days)

Pathfinder 85 days. Launch to last contact: 9 months, 23 days

[JulesVerneATV]

Piezoelectric vibration dislodges dust for more efficient solar panels
https://www.aip.org/scilights/piezoelectric-vibration-dislodges-dust-for-more-efficient-solar-panels

Year 2019 news 'Dust Cleanings Will Yield New Science'
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/insight/for-insight-dust-cleanings-will-yield-new-science/

How to clean solar panels
https://www.independent.co.uk/home-improvement/how-clean-maintain-solar-panels-b2773135.html

if it rains regularly, then you may not need to clean them very often.

we might have to wait a while before the next rain cleans the solar panels, some say it last rained on Mars 657,000 years ago a mix of carbon dioxide (CO2) , water vapor, methane (CH4) carbon monoxide, wet-dust sludge rivers,  water and during comet impacts.

The don't manage to archive absolutely everything, but they do manage to get a large percentage.

Thanks for your archive links

this guy seems to have made a career selling 'This Is Fine' bobble head plush dolls, almost millionaire sales



Exclusive This Is Fine Dog Pop! - Entertainment Earth

[AmigaClone]

show me a mission limited by dust

Insight Planned: 709 sols (2 years)[1]Final: 1440 sols (4 years, 19 days)
Phoenix   90 martian sols (planned) 157 martian sols (actual)

MER A Planned: 90 sols (~92 days) Actual: 2,208 sols (2,269 days),
MER B Planned: 90 sols (~92 days)  Actual: 5,352 sols (5,498 days)

Pathfinder 85 days. Launch to last contact: 9 months, 23 days

Ingenuity Planned 30 Sols (~30 days) Final flight (due to an accident): 993 sols - set up to store pictures and data as a stationary platform while solar panels last.