Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES) announced today that its actuators and radiation hardened (RadHard) microelectronics are heading back to the planet of Mars as part of today’s NASA MARS2020 Perseverance Rover Launch. The MARS2020 Perseverance rover mission is part of the NASA Mars Exploration Program's long-term robotic exploration of the red planet. Designed to advance high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, the mission will address key questions about the potential for life and challenges of future human expeditions to Mars.
"We are very excited to head back to the red planet as part of the Perseverance launch. Space is one of our passions at Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions and developing solutions for space and space exploration is in our core DNA,” said Shawn Black, CEO, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions. “With the previous NASA Mars Curiosity Rover mission, CAES actuators and radiation hardened integrated circuits completed a 350 million mile journey and three years of daily tasks while withstanding the challenges of the grueling Martian atmosphere, including -120° C temperatures and a volatile dust environment. Our range of low, medium and high torque designs are built to endure a wide variety of motion-related activity and are ready for the mission ahead.”
CAES actuators will drive the Perseverance rover wheels and provide steering motion, move the high-gain antenna and perform remote sensing mast deployment. They are also be featured in the instrument pack designed by Malin Space Science Systems. The Perseverance rover’s electronics and payloads are based on Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions’ UT699 LEON microprocessor, which handles the computing functions for the motor controls as well as the UT54LVDS217 LVDS Serializer, UT54LVDS218 Deserializer and a variety of memory devices including the UT8MR2M8 MRAM, UT8Q512K32 SRAM and UT8QNF8M8 NOR Flash.