- LONDON (Reuters) - An unexplained
phenomenon akin to a space-borne car wash has boosted the performance of
one of the two U.S. rovers probing the surface of Mars, New Scientist magazine
said on Tuesday.
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- It said something -- or someone -- had regularly cleaned
layers of dust from the solar panels of the Mars Opportunity vehicle while
it was closed down during the Martian night.
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- The cleaning had boosted the panels' power output close
to their maximum 900 watt-hours per day after at one stage dropping to
500 watt-hours because of the heavy Martian dirt.
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- By contrast, the power output of the solar panels of
Mars Spirit -- on a different part of the Red Planet -- had dropped to
just 400 watt-hours a day, clogged by the heavy dust.
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- "These exciting and unexplained cleaning events
have kept Opportunity in really great shape," the magazine quoted
NASA rover team leader Jim Erickson as saying.
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