SW SOUTHWEST SE SOUTHEAST NE NORTHEAST MW MIDWEST W WEST Northrop Grumman Technologies Support NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover The Perseverance Rover utilizes Northrop Grumman’s LN-200S IMU for navigation, pressurant tanks for the Rover’s gas dust removal tool and propellant tanks for the Rover’s controlled descent element. Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech. M ANUFACTURING N EWS Reaching Every Month Over 100,000 Metalworking Manufacturing Decision Makers MW MI D W ES T M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 2007 Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin NE N O RTH E A S T M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 2005 Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont & West Virginia WA MT OR ID WY SD NE UT CO KS OK IA IL MO IN KY NC TN AZ NM TX AR MS LA FL AL GA SC ND MN WI MI PA OH MD DE ME VT NH NY MA RI CT NJ NV CA WV VA W W ES T M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 2012 Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington & Wyoming SE SW SO UTHW ES T M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 1997 Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee & Virginia M ANUFACTURING N EWS Serving Since 1965 Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana & New Mexico SO UTH E A S T For more information: 800-375-8488 or info@mfgnewsweb.com GROSS PUBLICATIONS, INC. 1133 Airline Drive, Suite 2100 • Grapevine, TX 76051 P.O. Box 847 • Grapevine, TX 76099-0847 817-488-8488 • Fax: 817-488-7813 E-Mail: info@mfgnewsweb.com John W. Gross, Publisher/CEO jgross@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 101 Ruth M. Gross, Editorial Director rgross@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 105 Brad J. Gross, Managing Editor/President bgross@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 109 Jody Estes, Associate Publisher/Vice President jestes@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 111 Jenny McDonald, Associate Editor/Vice President jmcdonald@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 108 Danelle Gross, Billing Coordinator dgross@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 107 Katy Bynum, Editorial Coordinator kbynum@mfgnewsweb.com • Ext. 104 Closing date for editorial: 45 days before issue date. Closing date for advertising: 30 days before issue date. Published 12 times annually. No charge for subscriptions to qualified recipients. Annual rate for subscriptions to nonqualified recipients in the U.S.A. $56.00. Copyright © 2021 by Gross Publications, Inc. www.mfgnewsweb.com 4 May 2021 • SOUTHWEST MANUFACTURING NEWS • www.mfgnewsweb.com Northrop Grumman Corporation provided key navigation and critical com-ponents to support NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Perseverance Rover. The Perseverance Rover utilizes Northrop Grumman’s LN-200S inertial measurement unit (IMU) to provide atti-tude and acceleration information for guidance, as well as pressurant tanks for the Rover’s gas dust removal tool (gDRT) and propellant tanks for the Rover’s con-trolled descent element. The company has provided mission critical components on all previous Mars Rovers missions, in-cluding 2003’s Spirit and Opportunity and 2012’s Curiosity. “Our longstanding support of NASA’s Mars Rover missions has pro-vided vital components for these vehicles for many years,” said Lindsay McEwen, Vice President, Navigation and Position-ing Systems, Northrop Grumman. “The LN-200S brings critical navigation capa-bilities to the Perseverance Rover, and de-livers top reliability that has helped to extend previous Mars Rover missions for years beyond their ex-pected length.” The LN-200S is a low cost and lightweight IMU that features three fiber optic gyro-scopes and three silicon Micro Elec-tro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers. Northrop Grumman’s tanks enable the Rover’s gDRT to blow away dust particles after grinding rock sam-ples to allow a better look at the polished sample surface. The pro-pellant tanks used on the Rover’s descent element deliver hydrazine propel lant for the controlled descent onto the Martian sur-face. Propellant tanks are also used on the cruise stage during transport from Earth to Mars. The Perseverance Rover mission will last at least one Mars year, or about 687 Earth days. It will study the habit-ability of Mars and will specifically seek biosignatures of past life, collect core samples of the surface and test oxygen production in the atmosphere. Addi-tionally, the Perseverance Rover will test technologies to aid in future human exploration. For more information contact: Northrop Grumman Corporation 2980 Fairview Park Drive Falls Church, VA 22042-4511 703-280-2900 www.northropgrumman.com The LN-200S IMU maintains performance even in the most demanding environmental conditions.
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