[Mod request] Dusty solar panels

[evileye.x]

Hello everyone!

Recently I thought about realism mods in KSP and I think I got the idea not yet covered by any of mods.

Because you know, dust on solar panel can be an issue if you don't have Mark Kerman to blow the dust away...

As far as I remember, it can be real problem for solar powered unmanned rovers...

What do you think. Could be nice to have KIS item (pressurized gas tank) to clean up solar panel on landed bases/rovers and so on?

[Li0n]

Nice idea but a mod like that should also change the texture of the solar panel to reflect how dusty they are, IMO.

[Drew Kerman]

I think the only application for this would be area effects from other game objects, since the game has no weather. It wouldn't really be fair to say panels get x amount dustier per day just based on the environment they are in. However if a rover is driving around or ships are landing/taking off near bases, it's feasible to say that dust is falling on the solar panels. It does still present a problem for remote rovers however since they would continue to get dustier and dustier with no kerbals to clean them off. Would there then be random occurrence of wind storms that blow through with a random amount of dust getting blown off the panels?

I like the idea, because it's a realism thing, but not sure a lot of necessary gameplay is in place to really make it worth dealing with.