Sun flowers

• Autores: Jon White
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3164, 2018, págs. 26-27
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • These intricate solar panels will help unlock the deepest secrets of Mars. They were opened in a test facility at Lockheed Martin's Space division in Colorado as part of a check of NASA's InSight lander. The craft is due to blast off on its journey to the surface of the Red Planet in May. If it lands successfully six months later at Elysium Planitia, a plain straddling the Martian equator, there will be a 16-minute pause to let the dust settle before the photovoltaic arrays unfold like delicate Japanese fans. This design minimises mass and volume in flight, but will maximise the panels' efficacy on Mars, where the sun's intensity is a third of that on Earth.