>>11886641probably not
we need boots on the moon and robits on dune
>>11886678>assuming NASA decided to add little window wipers to clean the solar panels, would opportunity still be functioning today?no, as dust on mars sticks to shit because of static and doesn't get caked onto things like it does here on our sopping wet earth
martian dust is also extremely small. like <5 microns small
wipers would just scratch the fuck out of the solar panels and shorten the rover's life unnecessarily, as they were only supposed to last 3 months
they should've had some kind of air compressor on board that could blow the dust off, but all that trouble for 90 days just wasn't worth it
out of all the things to worry about, people were panicked over the bouncy ball landing working properly
nobody even thought about the solar panels as the previous pathfinder rover from 1997 was supposed to last a week and instead lasted like 3 months
