Abstract
1960 is the birth year of both the laser and the Mars exploration missions. Eleven years passed before the first successful landing on Mars, and another six before the first rover could explore the planet’s surface. In 2011, both technologies were reunited with the first laser landing on Mars as part of the ChemCam instrument, integrated inside the Curiosity Rover. In 2020, two more rovers with integrated lasers are expected to land on Mars: one through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Mars 2020 mission and another through the European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars mission. The ExoMars mission laser is one of the components of the Raman Spectrometer instrument, which the Aerospace Technology National Institute of Spain (INTA) is responsible for. It uses as its excitation source a laser designed by Monocrom and manufactured in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF). In this paper, we present for the first time the final flight module laser that has been installed in the rover’s onboard laboratory and validated to be shipped to Mars in 2020. Particular emphasis is given to mechanical considerations and assembly procedures, as the ExoMars laser assembly has required soldering techniques in contrast to the standard adhesive technologies used for most laser assembly processes in order to fulfill the environmental and optical requirements of the mission.
Highlights
Martian ExplorationThe first attempt to reach Mars took place in 1960, when the USSR launched the Marsnik 1 mission, this mission failed to approach the red planet [1]
Particular emphasis is given to mechanical considerations and assembly procedures, as the ExoMars laser assembly has required soldering techniques in contrast to the standard adhesive technologies used for most laser assembly processes in order to fulfill the environmental and optical requirements of the mission
We were able to solder these components with a precision of 0.001◦ through the use of Hexapod PI instruments and customized and manufactured vacuum grippers (Figure 4); which represented a final success on the components assemble
Summary
The first attempt to reach Mars took place in 1960, when the USSR launched the Marsnik 1 mission, this mission failed to approach the red planet [1]. The NASA Mariner 4 mission was the first successful flight to approach Mars and the first 21 close shot photos of the planet were taken on the 14th of July 1965, showing cratered areas. The Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 missions returned pictures of the planet during 1969, showing mainly cratered areas. In November 1971, photos taken by the Mariner 9 mission revealed that the surface was covered by craters and presented dormant volcanoes and a huge rift across the surface of the planet [2]. The 1975 Viking mission confirmed that some of the meteors found on Earth originated on Mars and in 1997 the Mars Global Surveyor reached Mars to reveal ancient signs of water [3]
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