The most efficient solar cell, mlti junction, do not reach 40% withou sun light concentration. If I remamber well the record of non concentrated photovoltaics it's 33% or so.
The problem it's also that the solar panel area, for this Mars drone project, it's too small.
The risk of damage, since it will fly by computer as even light speed took 3 minutes from Mars to Earth (6 minutes come and back), it's high. Any sand hiting the blades at such speed would be 30 times more strong in impact than a sand hitting a ordinary frone on Earth.
If the blade hit the ground, bye bye... Human can damage drones easily by landing mistakes. Computers even more. If they will take 800 million dollars in this project, they should put 3 or 4 drones in the probe, since it's too risk to send just one drone and find out it broked in the first day.
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Originally Posted by teoman
Nasa does have very efficient solar panels. %40 if i remember correctly. You never get back the energy you invested to make them but for a mission to mars I suppose that is worth it.
I think they would also have very efficient and very expensive bearings too.
Using capacitors for the flight might be a good idea. They are not effected by the cold and have many more cycles than batteries.
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