Aerospace engineering and Smart Factory technology provider Crean Inc. celebrates NASA’s successful Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission launch.
These images, video and audio will be among the most iconic ever captured during the space era.” — Dave Sherry
After years of painstaking development, Crean Inc. celebrated with NASA the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission. Crean Inc., an aerospace engineering and Smart Factory technology provider, is a long-time supplier to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
Crean Inc. Mechanical Engineer Dave Sherry supported Mars 2020 testing at NASA’s JPL prior to launch.
“I am delighted to witness the successful launch of Perseverance,” Sherry said. “Assisting with the technology to record the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) of the spacecraft on Mars is some of my most rewarding work, and I look forward to seeing the product of our efforts.”
Sherry’s participation included work on PIXL and SHERLOC (two types of spectrometer systems that can spot biosignatures) as well as a set of EDL cameras, microphone and recording system. If the system performs as intended, it will record the “7 Minutes of Terror” that take the vehicle through aerobraking, parachute descent and then the powered descent with the rover on a “sky crane.”
The EDL camera system for Perseverance was an add-on, non-mission-critical system. The team selected commercial off-the-shelf components and worked to put them through an appropriate environmental screening – the system passed all testing and is installed on the spacecraft.
“It was great to see a large organization like JPL do something novel, knowing that it was not mission critical,” Sherry said. “I think these images, video and audio will be among the most iconic ever captured during the space era.”
The new system will take still photos, video and sound during entry, descent and landing. It is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.
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