20200805--Mars_Rover_2020

Case Study:
PIXL MARS ROVER

Precision Additive Manufacturing for Mission-Critical Performance

The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key astrobiology questions about the potential for life on Mars.

The created design for the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry
(PIXL), with its focus on function and weight savings, included features that prevented traditional manufacturing methods from offering a clear path to
production. The JPL team turned to Carpenter Additive hoping to take advantage of the design flexibility afforded by powder bed fusion 3D printing.

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About Carpenter Additive

Combining more than a hundred years of metallurgical leadership with unrivaled knowledge of additive manufacturing technologies, Carpenter Additive is committed to helping customers solve material and process challenges. Developing end-to-end solutions to add consistency, reduce risk, and continuously improve additive manufacturing production, Carpenter Additive offers high quality metal powder, a suite of solutions for material traceability, and contract manufacturing from powder to part.  

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Printing for Mars Webinar

This webinar content is focused on the technical challenges of producing the PIXL assembly which is mounted on a turret at the end of the robotic arm of the Perseverance Rover. Lowering the cantilevered assembly’s mass and designing the parts to facilitate full powder removal from internal channels were key to the mission’s success. 

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