AMETEK PDT Partners with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Provide Thermal Management Systems for the Perseverance Rover on Mars

-- The business supplied three pumping units to ensure safe thermal management of mission-critical spacecraft equipment --

GOLETA, CA (Feb. 26, 2021) – AMETEK Pacific Design Technologies (PDT) is proud to have contributed to NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which successfully landed on Mars last Thursday, Feb. 18. PDT provided three Integrated Pumping Units that circulate a heat transfer liquid through the rover during its journey, acting as a cooling system and ensuring safe thermal management of mission-critical spacecraft equipment. The units include redundant pumps, controllers, thermal control valves, accumulators, filters, check valves, and sensors.

“PDT is extremely proud to support NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the Perseverance Rover program,” says Mike Brown, PDT’s Vice President and Business Unit Manager. “The successful landing and operation of Perseverance is the latest milestone in a long, productive relationship between JPL and PDT, starting more than 25 years ago with the first Mars rover, Pathfinder. Our deep space active cooling technology has continually supported JPL’s missions, including its upcoming venture to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, which is anticipated to launch in 2024.”

PDT previously provided its Integrated Pumping Units to JPL for the Curiosity Rover, the predecessor to Perseverance that journeyed to Mars in 2011 and is still in operation. Despite being designed to last only two years, PDT’s units on Curiosity continue to operate a decade later. Now, with the Perseverance mission, PDT is the only company in the world to have two active cooling systems in operation on another planet.

Intended for astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life, the Perseverance Rover is equipped with an array of sophisticated science instruments to conduct detailed examinations of the Martian surface. According to NASA’s press release, the rover will spend two years investigating Mars’ Jezero Crater, examining “rock and sediment of Jezero’s ancient lakebed and river delta to characterize the region’s geology and past climate.”

IMAGE CAPTIONS

  1. "AMETEK PDT Flight Instruments" -- PDT's Flight Hardware for the Mars Perseverance Mission includes (L-R) The Rover, Cruise and Auxiliary Pump Packages
  2. "NASA's Mars 2020 Perserverance Rover and Mars Helicopter" -- Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

About AMETEK PDT
AMETEK PDT is a world leader in the design and manufacture of sophisticated liquid cooling systems for commercial, defense, and space applications. PDT provides both integrated and distributed systems for a myriad of advanced airborne platforms including the 787 Dreamliner, F16, F18, Global Hawk, and the Mars Perseverance Rover. PDT excels in all disciplines of thermal and fluid engineering to provide unique packaging and SWAP-C benefits. PDT is a business unit within Thermal Management Systems, a division of AMETEK, Inc., a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of approximately $4.5 billion.

Contact:
Mike Brown
AMETEK PDT
Business Unit Manager
805.695.4903

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