A dust characterization experiment for solar cells operating on Mars

Author

Jenkins, Phillip ; Landis, Geoffrey A. ; Krasowski, Michael ; Greer, Lawrence ; Wilt, David ; Baraona, Cosmo ; Scheiman, David ; Lekki, J.

Author_Institution

Ohio Aerospace Inst., Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

1358

Lastpage

1361

Abstract

During the Viking and Pathfinder missions to Mars, significant amounts of dust accumulated on the spacecraft. In Pathfinder´s case, the dust obscured the solar panels on the lander and the rover degrading their output current. The material adherence experiment aboard the Pathfinder rover quantified the rate of decrease in short circuit current at 0.28% per day. This rate is unacceptably high for long duration missions. In response, NASA has developed the Dust Accumulation and Removal Technology (DART) experiment. DART has 3 instruments for characterizing dust settling out of the atmosphere and tests two methods to keep dust from settling on solar cells

Keywords

Mars; aerospace testing; dust; semiconductor device measurement; semiconductor device testing; solar cell arrays; space vehicle power plants; Dust Accumulation and Removal Technology experiment; Mars; NASA; Pathfinder; Viking; dust characterization experiment; lander; material adherence experiment; rover; short circuit current; solar cells; solar panels; space power; spacecraft; Aircraft manufacture; Atmosphere; Circuit testing; Degradation; Instruments; Mars; NASA; Photovoltaic cells; Short circuit currents; Space technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5772-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2000.916144

Filename

916144