The Materials Adherence Experiment (MAE) was a material science experiment conducted during NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission. It consisted of a small module mounted to Pathfinder's rover Sojourner that examined the effects of Martian surface dust on solar cells.
Purpose
Using solar power on the Martian surface is challenging because the Martian atmosphere has a significant amount of dust suspended in it. In addition to blocking sunlight from reaching Mars's surface, dust particles gradually settle out of the air and onto objects. As Pathfinder was NASA's first Mars surface mission to be solar-powered, the effect of Martian dust settling on solar cells were not well understood before the mission. It was predicted at the time that dust particles in the Martian atmosphere would settle on the solar cells powering Pathfinder, blocking sunlight from striking them and slowly causing Pathfinder to lose power. Since knowing how the settling of dust out of Mars's atmosphere would affect solar cell performance would be critical to subsequent solar-powered missions on Mars, the MAE was included aboard the Sojourner rover to measure the degradation in performance of a solar cell as dust settled.
An experiment is a procedure carried out to verify, refute, or validate a hypothesis. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments vary greatly in goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results. There also exist natural experimental studies.
A child may carry out basic experiments to understand gravity, while teams of scientists may take years of systematic investigation to advance their understanding of a phenomenon. Experiments and other types of hands-on activities are very important to student learning in the science classroom. Experiments can raise test scores and help a student become more engaged and interested in the material they are learning, especially when used over time. Experiments can vary from personal and informal natural comparisons (e.g. tasting a range of chocolates to find a favorite), to highly controlled (e.g. tests requiring complex apparatus overseen by many scientists that hope to discover information about subatomic particles). Uses of experiments vary considerably between the natural and human sciences.
Experimental Products were an electronic group. Founded in 1982 by Mark Wilde and Michael Gross, they were a Philadelphia-based group.
Career
Experimental Products self-produced the album Prototype in 1982. While it would be their only full album, they released the 2 EPs- Glowing In The Dark in 1984, and Experiment! in 1987. "Glowing" proved irresistible to DJs and became a 1985 dance club chart breakthrough. Today, many DJs and collectors consider it a "classic" synth record. Little else is known about the group other than that they grew to 4 members by 1987. Founding member Mark Wilde died in 1987.
Around the release of "Glowing in the Dark", Mike Simmons played live as a third keyboardist. He contributed songs played live that were never officially recorded. Need specifics on Americana band he played bass with around 2010, that reached #1 on a European chart. Mike Simmons left the group within a year's time. He has operated MARS recording studio for over 25 years.
Experiment is a 1943 Czech drama film directed by Martin Frič.