Materials Adherence Experiment: technology [space power]

NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission, launched December 4, 1996, reflects a new philosophy of exploiting new technologies to reduce mission cost and accelerate the pace of space exploration. Pathfinder will demonstrate a variety of new technologies aimed at reducing the cost of Mars exploration. Chief among these will be the demonstration of a solar-powered spacecraft on the surface of Mars. The Materials Adherence Experiment on Pathfinder was designed to measure the degradation of solar arrays due to dust settling out of the atmosphere and blocking light to the solar array, lowering the array power output.