“NASA couldn’t have made it to the floor of Mars with out aluminum.” So says Dr. John Grotzinger Chief Scientist and Head of Strategic Planning for the 2012 Mars Rover Mission. Grotzinger led NASA’s $2.5 billion Curiosity rover mission – maybe probably the most seen mission within the historical past of robotic area exploration in its seek for proof of previous life on the floor of the crimson planet. He made his remarks about aluminum in the course of the Aluminum Affiliation’s 2014 spring assembly in San Antonio, TX.

Light-weight, sturdy and terribly robust, house age aluminum alloys have been your best option to construct the physique and wheels of the nine-foot-long, 1,875-pound Curiosity rover robotic. Like a automobile physique, the rover’s aluminum shell is a powerful outer layer that retains the car’s very important and delicate electronics protected and temperature managed.

“NASA couldn’t have made it to the floor of Mars with out aluminum.”

Defined Grotzinger (pictured left), the mission itself had zero-margin for error with the closest mechanic greater than 50 million miles away. “If at first you don’t succeed –don’t attempt once more. Discover the foundation explanation for failure, then strive once more,” he stated.

The Curiosity mission is simply the newest instance of aluminum’s very important position within the improvement of recent aviation and mankind’s exploration of house.  Chosen for its light-weight and skill to resist the stresses that happen throughout launch and operation, aluminum has been used on Apollo spacecraft, the Skylab, the house shuttles and the Worldwide Area Station. Aluminum alloys constantly exceed different metals in areas equivalent to mechanical stability, dampening, thermal administration and decreased weight.