Dust Accumulation and Cleaning of the MER Opportunity Solar Array

Abstract:

The solar array of the NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity was expected to accumulate a sufficient quantity of dust after ninety Martian days (sols) such that it could no longer provide enough energy to guarantee continued surface operations. Instead, due in part to low dust accumulation rates and numerous dust cleaning events, Opportunity continues to operate on the Martian surface for over 4000 sols (over six Mars years). During this time period, the rover experienced six Martian winters and several dust storms. Because the sources of solar energy loss are known, the solar array energy output offers a method to scientifically estimate the loading and aeolian removal of dust from the solar array each sol. We will discuss the accumulation of dust on the solar panels as a proxy for dust movement at Meridiani Planum over the course of the entire mission to date.