Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Remotely-activated wipers for dusty planets

Swapna Krishna offers some excuses as to why we don't wipe down the panels when they get dusty. I say "excuses" because they aren't good reasons, long-term.

To sum up - wipers, as such, stand to scrape the panels and make them less efficient. Also they are extra mass at launchtime, and more engineering to keep working after the four years in which they are needed. The mission itself was sold as a two-year mission with the extra two being a bonus. (Many of our missions have overstayed their expected lifespan in this way.)

I'll say here that if every gram counts, or every "ounce" as a servant-of-the-Empire would say (Americans are silly this way): then, also, the grams taken to lift the same mission again must count, for when the first mission ends. If we see a pain-point, relieving that pain-point will, yes, bring us to the next pain-point. But: we've still gotten through that first issue. We've delayed the day in which we need to boost up something else. I assume Swapna K dislikes Elon M? then stick it to Elon - today is not your day to boost up another mission, tell him.

As for that first pain-point: Earth-rated wipers are probably bad for Mars, yes. Krishna explained the problem adequately. But. The next trick is to devise a neo-wiper as can undo the Martian static cling. This is an engineering problem. Speaking as (software) engineer, I find that bosses dislike when you tell them "no can do, cap'" and expect to be paid anyway.

Overall Krishna needs to side with the lander and with her viewers, more than with the NASA (or whichever) team doing throwaway missions. We need these missions to last longer if we want Earth colonists to last longer.

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