"Stanislaw Sidor" wrote in message ...
Newsuser "groutch" wrote ...

I was wondering why NASA accepts a shortened life for the Mars Rovers
due to "dust build-up on the solar panels".

Is cleaning them beyond their rocket scientists ?

This is the most stupidity in space exploration when a ground probe's
lifetime
is limited to 2-3 months (making an assumption that a dust has no influence
on solar arrays)!

They are well aware of the problem. It's a non-problem
problem. The real problem is the cold, that's going to
kill the rover stone dead with absolute certainty in a
few months. There isn't anyway around that, and it
just so happens that death by cold is going to come
at around the same time as dust buildup on the PV
arrays might become a concern. But by then it'll be
something to worry about after the rover's dead, which
is not something to worry about at all, especially not
something to spend tons of money trying to fix.


Why? Because plutonium Pu238 is bad?


A good science is to send a probe which is able to work all 5 years!
Look at Vikings.
Viking budget was about $2.5 billions (for both, recalculated) and ground
stations worked 5 years (average lifetime V1 & V2) so monthly cost is only
$35 millions!!!

Hey, go easy, it's not just that RTGs are kinda politically
hard to sell (though really they aren't), mostly it's the
cost and mass overhead. Solar panels are inexpensive and
easy, RTGs are expensive. I'd like to see an RTG powered
rover myself. Just imagining it blows my mind away with
the possibilities, it would be the single greatest thing
in space exploration since Apollo, easily. And it would
go on for years! But, it's gonna be expensive, so I can
wait. Interestingly, NASA has plans for such a thing,
and if they can get funding then it will happen.