How does "The first robotic servicing mission on the surface of Mars" sound to y'all?
Well, if you're #NASA#JPL, this awesome headline could be yours for the low cost of a few nitrogen puffs!
This thread is just me fantasizing how Perseverance could potentially use its gDRT to clean the dusty solar panel and camera lens on Ingenuity and make history with this extraordinary servicing operation! 🧵
@stim3on
Very Nicely done! 👏 👏
Seriously, I think it's very possible the team has already discussed this, as it comes naturally to mind, but I'm afraid the answer may have been no.
#NASA's spirit is not to leave anyone behind, and this is probably what they've been doing for quite some time now with #Ingenuity, justifying the time spent to listening for it and trying to upload its commands. But at some point the heli will become a liability, and they may need to make some tough decisions.
1/
@stim3on
If something had to be done, cleaning the panel would be a priority IMO, operationally, and fortunately it seems it would be less risky. I'm not sure it would be very effective though, since the area to clean is much larger than the 20cm2 of an abrasion
I wouldn't blame #NASA for letting nature take its course with Ingenuity, although it wouldn't be popular, but it may be necessary at some point. They have done a marvelous job with it, and there's even more to come with the MSR 🙂
@stim3on@65dBnoise yep. The question I often see at the end of missions like Insight is why they don't just wipe off the dust, or blow it off. The dust sticking to the solar panels is a common answer, but I'm curious to see what could be done.
There's other reasons for ending a mission of course.
@loy
This is increasingly a big problem for planetary missions relying on solar panels for power. The situation on the Moon is much worse than it is on Mars, and the need there may be much more urgent, too.
@65dBnoise@loy And super fine and abrasive dust 😬 (because there is nothing to tumble it around, rounding it.
Will be fun to clean without scratching everything 🙈
@65dBnoise I don't even want to think about it, but the time when we have to say our goodbyes to Ingenuity is always getting closer. Let's hope it's still a little down the road though!
Regarding the small cleaning area, it would probably come down to multiple well placed puffs to maximize the effect. And even if the panel doesn't get perfectly cleaned everywhere, it might still clean the other areas partially.
@stim3on
Back of the envelope calculation:
• Solar panel area: 400cm2
• Abrasion area: 20cm2
• Puffs needed per abrasion: 3-4
• Distance from surface: 10cm
To cover the whole panel:
• 400/20*4 = 80 puffs = N2 gas for 20 abrasions
• Protruding antenna will prevent a close placement of the gDRT nozzle, so the panel can only be partially cleaned, at best.
Despite it appearing like doable on Earth, doing something similar on Mars doesn't seem very practical, worth the effort and risk.
@65dBnoise I think you are severely underestimating the potential reach of the gDRT. For some reference I took the Sol 847 operation on Falcon Lake which happened without abrasion and had us all wondering what could remove this much dust.
I used the model by Chris Tate to make some measurements on the Navcam images.
By doing that I get a potential diameter of 12cm. Assuming circular shape that would mean 113cm^2 that could be cleaned by one series of blasts.
@stim3on
If seriously pursuing such a proposal, I wouldn't allow myself to estimate anything based just on images and speculation. "The Sampling and Caching Subsystem" which you used for the images of the gDRT has some of the numbers NASA uses to operate the instrument. If you put yourself in the shoes of a career NASA engineer, you'll see what I mean. It's not only "it would be nice", but how to justify the risk, because that's how those kinds of (non emergency) operations work. 🙂
@65dBnoise Now, the effectiveness is going to fall off towards the edges, but I don't think it will drop off as much as on a rock, since the solar panel is much flatter and smoother.
That means with 2 blasting operations on either side of the antenna we could clean most of the solar panel. Times that by 4 puffs and it's only 16 puffs of the 888 that were initially stored in gDRT, which seems quite reasonable to me.
@65dBnoise It would have to be tested how effective the nitrogen blast is outside the primary plume, which is obviously much smaller than the 12cm diameter as you suggested. Maybe a series of better distributed single puffs would be more effective on this smooth surface.
And even if it doesn't get cleaned perfectly everywhere, this should still result in a significant improvement for the solar generation.
@stim3on
It's possible that there are tests of the gDRT instrument that we are not aware of, which have resulted in numbers that could support something like that. If indeed there are, then maybe NASA already has plans about such an operation, or can think positively about your suggestion. But I don't think they would ever do anything on a whim.
@stim3on
This would be so very cool, if it could happen! With the rover's ability to precisely place the robotic arm in its workspace, I would think that the risk would be minimal. But this contravenes NASA's arbitrary "keep a distance" rule, although rules are made to be broken!! 🤔 😆
@tom30519 I think so too, but even then, it seems unlikely that anyone would want to risk it.
Maybe this gets some people thinking to at least consider this as an option that's potentially on the table. It would be incredible and historic to see this happen!
@tom30519 Anyway, I had fun making the renders for this, I wanted to do it for a long time. Today it just kind of happened by accident when I was playing around with a fully procedural dust shader for the rover and Ingenuity. 😃
Let's back up a bit, when Ingenuity was deployed on the surface over two years ago, its solar panel was mostly clean, but since then it has steadily accumulated fine dust on top of it. (Seen here on Sol 46 and in this recent picture from sol 871)
We don't have any exact numbers on it, but this severely affects the power generation capabilities of the little robot. This is part of the reason why Ingenuity is browning out because it loses the little power it has over night and has to reboot every morning.
Another thing that's not quite as pristine as on day one, is the image quality delivered by the color RTE camera. This started after a dust storm in early 2022 and the image has continuously gotten hazier and hazier.
(collection of images from Flight 9, Flight 21, Flight 40 and Flight 45)
The images it captures can still be incredible, proven by this image of Perseverance next to Belva crater during it’s 51st flight, but they lack the clarity of the early mission images and need heavy processing to bring out a clear image.
(comparison between raw and processed image from flight 51)
It’s incredible that Ingenuity is still going, after flying more than 10 times the expected number of flights it was designed for. It survived a cold and dusty Martian winter and lost a sensor to the cold. And with some servicing from Perseverance, this amazing success story could continue for even longer!
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