Mars Rover — Heman Au

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Before pursuing a career in industrial design, I spent 5 years as a mechanical design and process engineer. NASA approached Futek, who I was employed by at the time, to design and develop two space and flight qualified cryogenic sensor for the Mars Curiosity Rover. The rover was designed by NASA to determine whether the Red Planet ever was, or is, habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments. I was the lead engineer in the design and development of the two space and flight ready sensors.

Launched (literally into space) on July 7th, 2003.

Futek .jpg — Operating within the rover’s robotic arm, one sensor had the capabilities of measuring torque and force. As the arm maneuvers, the multi-axial sensor provides feedback to the operating device identifying the levels of torsion and force applied. The necessity of this multi-axial sensor is to alert the rover if over-exertion on the arm occurs.

Futek 2.jpg — Sitting within the drilling mechanism of the rover, the other sensor was responsible for measuring the forces of the drill bit at a high level of accuracy and resolution that a current controlled motor drive system cannot achieve. The inclusion of a dual-bridge was a necessity to allow for redundancy in the system, which reduces risk of the system becoming inoperable in the extreme conditions.

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