Solar energy is used for many mission-critical applications including space exploration, sensor systems to monitor wildfires, etc. Their operation can be limited or even terminated if solar panels are covered with dust or hit by space debris. To address this issue, we designed panel cleaning mechanisms and tested protective materials. For cleaning mechanisms, we designed and compared a wiper system and a rail system. For protective materials, we found through collision tests that polycarbonate was very promising, though the most important factor was layering a soft material between the panel's surface and a hard material. In the cleaning system comparisons, the wiper-based system was more efficient than the rail-based system in terms of cost, cleaning speed, and total power consumption.

翻译：太阳能被广泛应用于诸多关键任务场景，包括空间探索、监测野火的传感器系统等。若太阳能电池板被尘埃覆盖或遭受空间碎片撞击，其运行可能受限甚至终止。为解决此问题，我们设计了电池板清洁机制并测试了防护材料。在清洁机制方面，我们设计并比较了刮拭系统与轨道系统。对于防护材料，通过碰撞测试发现聚碳酸酯表现出良好潜力，但最关键的因素是在电池板表面与硬质材料之间铺设软质夹层。在清洁系统对比中，刮拭系统在成本、清洁速度和总功耗方面均优于轨道系统。