Getting one of NASA's vehicles into space takes engineering, aerodynamics, lots of science and a special paint job.
Painting a vehicle for an alien world is a lot different from painting a car — the paint is made to endure the extreme temperatures of Mars.Following is a transcript of the video.Getting one of NASA's vehicles into space takes engineering, aerodynamics, lots of science, and a special paint job. This is NASA's Mars 2020 rover.
But painting a vehicle for an alien world is a lot different from painting a car. For starters, the process is all done by hand. The Mars 2020 rover started as a pile of aluminum panels that took four months and over 5,000 hours to assemble. It'll take another three to four months to turn the frame, also known as the chassis, into a completed rover.
Many areas on the chassis need to be painted, while other parts won't have any paint at all. These areas usually have electronic boxes, wiring, or sensitive scientific instruments. To protect them during the process, these areas are carefully masked with tape. Emphasis on carefully. Instead of just ripping off a piece of tape, it is precisely measured and cut by a computer.
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