AEA Technology powers mission to Mars

Citation

(2003), "AEA Technology powers mission to Mars", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2003.12775faf.009

AEA Technology powers mission to Mars

AEA Technology powers mission to Mars

Keywords: Space, Spacecraft, Aerospace technology

UK based AEA Technology Battery Systems (AEA) contributed to the race to find life on Mars with the launch of "Mars Express", Europe's first voyage to another planet. Both the spacecraft "Mars Express" and its "Beagle 2" lander, which sits on top, benefit from AEA's lithium-ion battery technology.

Pioneered by AEA Technology, Lithium-ion technology is said to have revolutionised the commercial electronics industry over the last 15 years, but it is only now that AEA has further developed the battery technology that its novel properties have become important to the space industry.

A project spanning more than 3 years, AEA designed, built and tested the lithium-ion batteries on-board the Mars Express spacecraft, which will take a payload of seven scientific instruments to the red planet, and the Beagle 2 lander.

AEA Technology's lithium-ion batteries reportedly provide:

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  greatly reduced mass to energy-density ratio,

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  no "memory effect" found in other battery chemistries – therefore allowing a full re-charge every time, and

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  greater operating temperature range – allowing for full functioning even in the harsh Martian environment.

Fitted with AEA's advanced lithium-ion batteries the Mars Express space-craft and Beagle 2 lander will benefit from a continuous power supply even whilst the vehicles are "in eclipse", when their solar panels become ineffective. The solar panels are then used to re-charge the batteries that power the lander and the experiments throughout the mission.

It was the challenge of providing power to the Mars Express craft in them vacuum of space and the Beagle 2 experiments through the freezing Martian night that proved the greatest challenge and according to AEA could only be met through a combination of lithium-ion technology, novel engineering design and a stringent test programme.

Mars Express

The craft Mars Express will map the Martian surface and analyse its atmosphere. It carries radar instruments that can detect water several kilometre below surface, its main scientific goal being to detect vast reservoirs of water thought to be trapped under the Martian surface.

Beagle 2 Lander

The Beagle 2 Lander will search for signs of past and present life using the gas analysis package. Samples will be delivered to the instrument by tools on the PAW, on which are imaging and spectroscopic instruments.

As Mars Express nears the planet, it will drop Beagle 2 into a basin that could once have contained water and life. The small robotic probe, about the size of a garden barbecue, will then deploy the mole to dig into Martian rocks and soil to search for the chemical signature of life.

ESTL, AEA Technology's space tribology business, was involved in the lubrication, build and test of many of the component parts of the Beagle 2 mission, bringing its space tribology expertise to the project in a number of areas ranging from the solid lubrication of the spin-up and eject mechanism on Mars Express, to the adhesion testing of the separation device of the airbag gas generator, to the lubrication, build and test of the main lid and solar array hinges as well as the robotic arm joints.

Between them, Mars Express and Beagle 2 could answer one of the biggest questions in science: Is there, or was there, life on Mars?

Details available from: AEA Battery Systems. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7861 3030.