On 3/25/2014 12:20 PM, Brian Gaff wrote:
On Mars it looks like the wind can clean solar cells, but still I'd imagine
if manned habitation was going to occur there, some cell cleaning device
might be needed. Definitely this would be required on the moon with all that
dust and no wind to shift it.
I was just wondering what form this might take.
Maybe some kind of crawling device with an angled pad, bit like a snow
plough perhaps.

Take a chapter from the Indy Racing league or F1 car mounted cams.
Transparent Mylar film on a scroll. You unwind clean film across the
front of the solar panel when the current film gets too dirty/contaminated.

Eventually you run out of film, but it could last for a good long time
depending upon the application.

Other possibilities, wiper blades or even a compressed gas.

This also made me wonder about spacecraft panels in space. Do they ever
attract dust i wonder?

Probably not to the same extent to where you'd have to worry about it.

Brian


Dave