Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
How engineers designed and tested the latest Mars rover.
by Mark Clarkson
As the recent failure of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe highlights, it's tough to get to Mars. Even NASA has only a 65% success rate with Mars missions.
It's not just the mechanics of the vehicles, themselves. Sure, a Mars rover is a fantastically complex machine with tons of onboard computers, instruments and sensors, but so is a Cadillac CTS-V or a Boeing 777. A Mars rover does, however, present some unique challenges.
Most manufacturers have the advantage of being able to replace a part if something goes bad. They can issue a recall, or just recommend replacing your car's oil filter during normal servicing.
"We don't have those kind of luxuries," notes Bill Allen, mechanical design engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "We don't get a chance to retry or rebuild or service or redesign. We have one shot--and it's usually doing something we've never done before. We're trying to use existing tools and processes to get us through a unique design."
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