Curiosity Rover Solar Panels

This power source gives the mission an operating.
Curiosity rover solar panels. The 2 main drawbacks of solar panels is that they don t work during the night and they don t work during the martian winter. On august 6 2012 the most recent rover landed on mars. Mars exploration rovers spirit and opportunity exploring the planet mars facts information videos and pictures. One consequence is that the mars exploration rovers couldn t work for more that half of the time.
Opportunity set a new record for travel on an extraterrestrial location by driving a total of 2806 mi 45 16 km. The power source generates 9 mj 2 5 kwh of electrical energy each day much more than the solar panels of the now retired mars exploration rovers which generated about 2 1 mj 0 58 kwh each day. But these plutonium units are a respected power source for spacecraft nasa s curiosity rover. The curiosity rover is bigger needs more power.
They believe the dust covered the rover s solar power. The rovers by name curiosity. Without power it cannot move use its science instruments or communicate with earth. The rover requires power to operate.
Curiosity carries a radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium s radioactive decay. Photo courtesy of nasa.