I've already pointed out that NASA could have used the drone to blow some dust off the solar panels to improve charging ability. Basically they could do that by simply hovering the drone over the panels, or even landing it on a panel and running the lift rotor / fans. Their control is good enough to do it, and assisted by a lot of position sensors (there is no GPS on Mars of course). While not a perfect method, it would restore some sunlight access.

They have plenty of people at JPL, which runs the mission. However, they fired the ones who refused to get the kill jab, so my guess is the team is somewhat dimmer.

Added: I forgot - Martian gravity is much lower than Earth. Which means dust is proportionately lighter. Hence it should be quite easy to blow it off panels. Which makes me wonder why NASA is claiming it is so hard to remove the dust coating. But now we come to the next factor: Martian atmosphere is thinner, meaning it cannot carry as much force as it is blown. Which means the drone air push would be proportionally reduced. I can see that a drone designed to operate on Mars has two key factors: lighter weight from lower gravity, but in thinner air so it needs large propellers or higher speed.

In hindsight, NASA should have given the robotic arm a wiping pad to use.

I've already pointed out that NASA could have used the drone to blow some dust off the solar panels to improve charging ability. Basically they could do that by simply hovering the drone over the panels, or even landing it on a panel and running the lift rotor / fans. Their control is good enough to do it, and assisted by a lot of position sensors (there is no GPS on Mars of course). While not a perfect method, it would restore some sunlight access.

They have plenty of people at JPL, which runs the mission. However, they fired the ones who refused to get the kill jab, so my guess is the team is somewhat dimmer.

Added: I forgot - Martian gravity is much lower than Earth. Which means dust is proportionately lighter. Hence it should be quite easy to blow it off panels. Which makes me wonder why NASA is claiming it is so hard to remove the dust coating. But now we come to the next factor: Martian atmosphere is thinner, meaning it cannot carry a much force as it's blown. Which mean the drone air push would be less. I can see that a drone designed to operate on Mars has two key factors: lighter weight from lower gravity, but in thinner air so it needs large propellers or higher speed.

In hindsight, NASA should have given the robotic arm a wiping pad to use.

I've already pointed out that NASA could have used the drone to blow some dust off the solar panels to improve charging ability. Basically they could do that by simply hovering the drone over the panels, or even landing it on a panel and running the lift rotor / fans. Their control is good enough to do it, and assisted by a lot of position sensors (there is no GPS on Mars of course). While not a perfect method, it would restore some sunlight access.

They have plenty of people at JPL, which runs the mission. However, they fired the ones who refused to get the kill jab, so my guess is the team is somewhat dimmer.

I've already pointed out that NASA could have used the drone to blow some dust off the solar panels to improve charging ability. Basically they could do that by simply hovering the drone over the panels. Their control is good enough to do it, and assisted by a lot of position sensors (there is no GPS on Mars of course). While not a perfect method, it would restore some sunlight access.

They have plenty of people at JPL, which runs the mission. However, they fired the ones who refused to get the kill jab, so my guess is the team is somewhat dimmer.