The Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) program posed a significant engineering and technology challenge. Now that the Rovers have operated beyond their original design life of three months by nearly a factor of four it is clear that the challenge was met and far exceeded. A key to the success of MER has been the enhanced power provided by the cruise and Rover solar arrays. Benefiting from a nearly 50% improvement in cell efficiency compared to the single junction GaAs cells used on Pathfinder, the MER designs were subject to many constraints both in design and in operation. These constraints included limited available panel area, changing illumination levels and temperatures, and variable shadowing, atmospheric conditions and dust accumulation for the rovers. This paper will discuss those constraints and their impact on the design. In addition, flight data will be provided to assess the performance achieved during the mission.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Design and Performance of the MER (Mars Exploration Rovers) Solar Arrays


    Beteiligte:

    Kongress:

    31st Photovoltaic Specialists Conference ; 2005 ; Lake Buena Vista, FL, United States


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2005-01-03


    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Mars Exploration Rovers Propulsive Maneuver Design

    Potts, Christopher / Raofi, Behzad / Kangas, Julie | AIAA | 2004


    Mars Exploration Rovers Propulsive Maneuver Design

    Potts, Christopher L. / Raofi, Behzad / Kangas, Julie A. | NTRS | 2004


    Mars Exploration Rovers Navigation Results

    D'Amario, Louis A. | Online Contents | 2006


    Mars exploration rovers navigation results

    D’Amario, Louis A. | Springer Verlag | 2006


    Mars Exploration Rovers navigation results

    D'Amario, Louis A. | NTRS | 2004