Microwave cable assemblies on Mars mission

19 May 2004 Interconnection Fire & Safety News & Events

The planet Mars is an unforgiving environment, even for Huber+Suhner's highly rugged Sucoflex microwave cable assemblies. However, these products satisfy the most rigorous demands of space applications, a fact borne out by their use in the 'Mars Express' space probe. They are being applied for the first time on the planet Mars.

With the Red Planet as close to Earth as 55 758 006 kilometres, it was a good occasion for the European Space Agency ESA to launch one of the most interesting missions in its history. The last time Mars came so close was 73 000 years ago. On 2 June 2003, the Mars Express space probe was dispatched to Mars, with the purpose of finding traces of life or at least whether life was once possible.

Riding piggyback on the Mars Express was 'Beagle 2'. After a journey of over six months, this small high-tech lab detached from the space probe to land on the surface of Mars. Hardly bigger than a microwave oven, it contained two spectrometers, three cameras, a sample-collecting robot and a mechanical gripping arm. Eight instruments, at a total weight of only about 30 kilograms, is a record. In Beagle 2, Sucoflex microwave cable assemblies transmit the measurement data back to Earth which the various instruments supply. Sucoflex products have been applied in various satellites since 1996.

At Huber+Suhner, ESA-certified employees manufacture products for space applications under clean room conditions. In-house test laboratories allow Huber+Suhner to conduct its own extensive production and qualification tests. The design and production of radio-frequency cables, connectors and assemblies are combined under a single roof. This allows the various products to be optimally matched.

But these are not the only capabilities that make Huber+Suhner a world-class provider of products and services for space applications. Indispensable in space missions is a low product weight and an assured top product quality too. Moreover, the customer had sought a supplier for the Beagle 2 project who - in addition to offering a customised product - would also provide top service. In research projects such as this one flexibility is crucial, since specifications may change in the course of development. Sales engineers from Huber+Suhner advised the customer during the entire project so that the very best solution could be found.

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