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Photodetector Development for the Wheel Abrasion Experiment on the Sojourner Microrover of the Mars Pathfinder MissionOn-board the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, launched in December of 1996, is a small roving vehicle named Sojourner. On Sojourner is an experiment to determine the abrasive characteristics of the Martian surface, called the Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE). The experiment works as follows: one of the wheels of the rover has a strip of black anodized aluminum bonded to the tread. The aluminum strip has thin coatings of aluminum, nickel and platinum deposited in patches. There are five (5) patches or samples of each metal, and the patches range in thickness from 200 A to 1000 A. The different metals were chosen for their differing hardness and their environmental stability. As the wheel is spun in the Martian soil, the thin patches of metal are abraded away, exposing the black anodization. The abrasion is monitored by measuring the amount of light reflected off of the samples. A photodetector was developed for this purpose, and that is the subject of this paper.
Document ID
19980000043
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Wilt, David M. (NASA Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH United States)
Jenkins, Phillip P. (Essential Research, Inc. Cleveland, OH United States)
Scheiman, David A. (NYMA, Inc. Brook Park, OH United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 1997
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Report/Patent Number
NASA-TM-113123
NAS 1.15:113123
E-10889
Meeting Information
Meeting: Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference
Location: Honolulu, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: July 27, 1997
End Date: August 1, 1997
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Inst. of Chemical Engineers, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., American Nuclear Society
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS3-27186
PROJECT: RTOP 632-1A-1A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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