After the InSight probe that landed on the Red Planet on November 26, 2018 with the high-reliability specialist‘s film capacitors on board, it is with the Perseverance robot that Exxelia proudly makes its return to Mars! At the end of a seven-month journey, NASA’s Perseverance robot landed on Mars on Feb 18 at 3:55 pm EST with one mission: search for traces of ancient primitive life on the Red Planet.
Strong of its 40+ years experience in space applications, Exxelia offers a complete space-qualified passive components product portfolio showing no less than 50 product series qualified to the stringent European Space Agency qualification procedures. Why? Because, “we all know that when a product is in space, it can't be fixed! It has to work, and it has to work for 20 years! Our products are tested for 3 to 4 months, to be sure they will work perfectly. In total, the whole process from start to finish takes at least 16 to 20 weeks”, explains a senior VP at Exxelia
Prior to answering this question, one has to know that the robot is equipped with seven highly complex measuring and sampling instruments. These tools will be acquiring information about Martian geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential biosignatures. Three of these tools, SuperCam, MEDA, and PIXL are served by Exxelia’s components:
- SuperCam is the laser-eye of Perseverance. Its objective is to characterize the rocks present on Martian soil by remote analysis
- The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA): It makes weather measurements including wind speed and direction temperature and humidity
- PIXL is an X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer that detects and analyzes chemical elements within the rocks and soil.