JPL Clears Dust From InSight Mars Lander’s Solar Panel

Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers managing NASA’s Insight Mars Lander used a counterintuitive method to clear dust from a solar panel on the InSight Mars Lander, increasing its power supply and extending its mission, JPL announced Thursday.

Dust buildup on the solar panel had been reducing efficiency at the same time Mars is approaching its aphelion, or its the farthest point from the sun in its orbit, further reducing available sunlight to power the probe, JPL said in a written statement.

In order to remove some of the dust from the solar panel, engineers came up with an “innovative” plan, according to the statement.

“The lander’s robotic arm trickled sand near one solar panel, helping the wind to carry off some of the panel’s dust,” it said. “The result was a gain of about 30 watt-hours of energy per sol, or Martian day.”

The team plans to make a second attempt to clear more dust from the lander’s solar panels on Saturday.

The power boost will allow InSight to continue conducting science for several additional weeks before powering down it’s instruments in preparation for the Martian cold season, according to JPL.

“During this period, InSight will reserve power for its heaters, computer, and other key components,” the statement explained.

NASA announced in January that the mission duration for InSight had been extended by two years, and the probe will operate through December 2022.

The team behind InSight had been contemplating how to best go about clearing dust from the solar panels for nearly a year.

“For example, they tried pulsing the solar panel deployment motors — last used when InSight opened its solar panels after landing — to shake the dust off but didn’t succeed,” the statement said.

Ultimately, the team decided to try the approach of using the spacecraft’s scoop to pour sand next to, but not directly on top of the solar panel, according to JPL’s Matt Golombuck, a member of the Insight Science Team.

“We weren’t sure this would work, but we’re delighted that it did,” he said.

More information on the InSight Mars Lander mission is available online at mars.nasa.gov/insight.

How do you get rid of dirt? By adding more dirt! Read about the crazy idea to clean the solar panels on @NASAInsight and how it worked to give the Mars lander a small power boost. https://t.co/haYVzLvd5C pic.twitter.com/Hc2xiYC1GS

— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) June 3, 2021

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