The Siemens Curiosity Mars Rover model was recently on show at the Siemens Future of Manufacturing event. It travels the world to demonstrate how the complex Mars Rover was put together, largely using Siemens software. Its construction had to be perfect to take every risk into account. This included the design of all 90 000 parts that work together inside the Rover, the complex entry and landing sequence on the Martian surface, as well as the robot’s survival in the harsh Martian environment.
“We don’t get a chance to try again, we have one shot and it’s usually doing something we’ve never done before,” says Bill Allen, mechanical design engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. JPL used Siemens computer-aided engineering software to test and simulate how the thousands of parts would work together and how much stress they could take from temperature, friction and pressure changes. Siemens NX programs were also used to generate the code which guided the machines manufacturing the intricate Mars Rover parts to within the accuracy of the width of a human hair.
The environment in space is impossible to recreate on earth, so simulation software was also essential. Curiosity was put through the vacuum and extreme cold of deep space, was then re-pressurised in the Martian atmosphere, experienced extreme wind, vibration, noise and G-forces, and then scorching heat and freezing cold – all within hours. Curiosity’s landing sequence alone was perfected through 8000 simulations.
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