Watch the mobile Mars 2020 receive a special paint job to withstand the weather



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The Campanella team first applied more than 600 masking tapes to parts of the chassis that the paint would render ineffective. Although the ribbon itself is only a common standard variety, the Campanella team used a computer cutting machine to obtain as precise a size as possible. It was also important to protect some of the most critical areas of the chassis while you worked on the rest. 130 stencils made of sheet metal were therefore used as protection.

The primer and white paint used had to fulfill three essential conditions. It had to be able to stick to the aluminum that made up the chassis and be robust enough to withstand the harsh and fluctuating weather conditions on the planet. Perhaps the most important is that the materials could not in any way contaminate the planet with organic compounds (because they could contaminate the collected samples) and jeopardize the scientific equipment on board. The complete chassis therefore spent three days in a vacuum chamber to harden paint and remove contaminants.

Ultimately, space exploration and global analysis are deeply rooted in our cabling as human beings. It is simply a technological extension of the crossing of the oceans a few centuries ago and the crossing of the continents shortly after. In an era of political anxiety and climate change that is becoming increasingly disconcerting, it is comforting to know that we are still bold enough and capable of looking for stars.

The March 2020 rover is now in the JPL spacecraft assembly facility in Pasadena, California. The launch of the nuclear-powered six-wheeled vehicle is scheduled for July 2020 from Cape Canaveral and is expected to arrive on Mars in February 2021.

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