Each time the Perseverance Mars Rover collects or handles rock and regolith samples in Jezero Crater during its multiple-year mission on the surface of the red planet, multiple parts work in tandem. The key components that make the operations easy are from SKF - Kaydon RealiSlim thin-section ball bearings.
Space applications must be a small fraction of the weight of standard bearing assemblies. These highly engineered components contribute to the survival of the rover's main robotic arm, sample collecting turret, tool bit carousel and sample handling assembly during a months-long trip through space, and its function as intended on the Mars surface.
These critical components are designed and manufactured by SKF at the company's global thin-section bearing engineering centre in Muskegon and its recently expanded manufacturing hub in Sumter, USA.
SKF also supplied critical bearings for the mission's launch vehicle, which carried the rover and its lander into space. Kaydon bearing solutions are often customised from baseline models for specific customers and commonly used in applications that require a careful balance between strength, weight, size, functionality and reliability - including robotic surgical equipment, automated precision manufacturing, detailed painting, aircraft systems, airport security scanners and medical CT imagers.
SKF bearings will play an integral role in the vital process of sample collection on Mars. When the rover is ready to begin collecting samples on the surface, the robotic arm will manoeuvre into place, and the tool bit carousel will whirr into action, deploying tools to drill or abrade material. The sample collecting turret will then collect and transfer to the sample handling assembly for processing onboard the rover, and eventually return to Earth for analysis via a future Mars mission.
'The bearings we designed and built to help the rover perform its core science activities were based on several models of Kaydon thin-section ball bearings customised by our engineers to minimise weight and save space, while retaining maximum functionality and reliability for a mission where repair or replacement is simply not an option,' said Isidoro Mazzitelli, Director of Product Development and Engineering Americas.
Photo courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech