Does Curiosity Have Solar Panels

Harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.

Does curiosity have solar panels.

Curiosity nuclear solar power spirit opportunity. A close up of mars curiosity s power source. Mars exploration rovers spirit and opportunity exploring the planet mars facts information videos and pictures. But since spirit and opportunity are solar powered rovers and curiosity is powered with an rtg it is difficult to compare the missions theisinger said.

While solar panels have issues with martian dust this was a known factor before the 2004 spirit and opportunity mission. In short nasa wanted to make this mission better and faster. 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. That costs around 50 000 once the federal solar investment tax credit is factored in and it produces around 9 85 kilowatts of power which tesla told tobler was the biggest system we have.

A generation from now this solar heatercan either be a curiosity a museum piece an example of a road not taken or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the american people. It s just been the hardiest. The curiosity rover is bigger needs more power. Previous mars missions have relied on solar panels to power the rovers but exploration was slowed down by dust.

Why then did the 2004 rovers choose to use solar panels for power. Curiosity is 2 9 m 9 5 ft long by 2 7 m 8 9 ft wide by 2 2 m 7 2 ft in height larger than mars exploration rovers which are 1 5 m 4 9 ft long and have a mass of 174 kg 384 lb including 6 8 kg 15 lb of scientific instruments.