Bearings help lander dig into Martian soil
A
RA Rodriguez product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Jul 30, 2008
The bearings take a heavy load during digging, as up to 44kg of force is needed to break through the ice in order to reach a depth of about 500mm.
The Phoenix Mars Lander that began scooping up samples of Martian soil last month depends on Kaydon Reali-Slim thin-section bearings to position its robotic arm for digging in the permafrost.
This is the second Mars mission for Reali-Slim bearings.
They were also used in two 2004 Mars Exploration Rovers which are still sending geological findings back to earth, 171 million miles away.
The robotic arm is designed to trench the surface, pick up soil and ice samples and deposit them in instrumentation for testing and analysis.
The 2.13m x 177mm arm is attached to the deck of the Lander with a garden-sized trowel on its opposing end.
A camera mounted above the device sends colour images of the samples to scientists on earth.
The arm has four types of motion: up and down, side to side, backwards and forwards, and rotation.
Three of the joints that accomplish these movements feature sets of custom-engineered Reali-Slim thin-section bearings from Kaydon.
The system was designed by Alliance Space Systems and the company's Mechanical Engineering Group Supervisor said that Kaydon bearings were specified for several reasons.
"They gave us plenty of load capacity even though they are lightweight and small enough to fit into a tight space", Richard Fleischner said.
"They are also sufficiently robust to withstand the force and vibration of the launch".
The bearings take a heavy load during digging, as up to 44kg of force is needed to break through the ice in order to reach a depth of about 500mm.
They are made from heat-treated 440C stainless steel and mechanically honed to achieve a superior finish and torque.
To enable them to operate in extreme cold down to -108C the bearings are heated and use a low outgassing lubricant that doesn't gets too viscous in the cold temperature or evaporate in the thin atmosphere.
The Phoenix Lander is expected to be on Mars for three months, digging for evidence that the planet could sustain life.
In the UK Kaydon bearings are supplied by RA Rodriguez.
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