Painting Cars for Mars
We're putting together a rover.
And this is what it will look
like when it gets to Mars.
But before we get to this point
we've got to put
Mars 2020 together.
I'm Chris Salvo.
I manage the team
that puts together the rover
mechanical subsystem.
You see here it's a fully
assembled chassis.
But it's all still
shiny aluminum.
We paint it white so that
it reflects sunlight.
The white reflective property
of the paint is important
because our paint will need to
survive in temperatures
as hot as your oven 
and down to temperatures colder
than occur any place on Earth.
There are lots of areas
on the chassis
that must not have
paint on them.
And each of those has to be
carefully masked.
There can't be any folds. There
can't be any stray edges.
It all has to be perfect.
Otherwise we'll wind up
with paint in places
where we can't have it
or portions of the structure
that are missing paint
where we need it.
Here we are rolling up to
the paint building.
This very special formulation of
paint has to live through
all of the difficulties
of getting to Mars,
shaking on the launch vehicle,
as well as existing on
the surface of Mars
in the hot and cold cycles.
For the paint to work right,
it has to be just the
right thickness
and evenly applied.
To prepare the
aluminum surfaces,
we have to make sure
they're very clean.
The shiny aluminum surface
is then reduced to
more of a scuffed surface
that's ready to accept paint.
This generates dust as well.
That all has to be cleaned
and vacuumed off
so that we don't have any
particles that are
going to get under the paint
and keep if from adhering
or cause it to flake off.
There are rules for the
application of this paint
that include things
like a time limit
between when you scuff the
surface of the aluminum
and when you have to
apply the paint.
Like most of the assembly
of the rover,
the painting process is
not fully automated
like you might see in a
manufacturing plant,
because we're building
one-of-a-kind machines.
When you send a
spacecraft into space,
all of what we call the
volatile materials
that you take with you--
the water that's absorbed into
things or other chemicals--
tend to come out in
the vacuum of space.
And they float around
and redeposit
on surfaces where
you don't want.
One of the ways to prevent
this is to bake it out.
This is one of our larger
thermal vacuum chambers.
This oven is 10 feet
in diameter.
We cook out all of
those chemicals
that might cause us
problems later.
After the baking, we
need only to deliver it
to the assembly facility.
We have to keep it clean, so
we put it in a double bag.
When we get to the
assembly building,
there's a room called
an airlock,
where we transition from
the dirty outside
to the clean inside of
the assembly facility.
We very carefully clean
portions of the fixture
that are going to touch areas
inside the airlock.
The outer bag got dirty outside.
So we take that off
and throw it away.
And the bag inside
is relatively clean.
Then we're ready to
leave the airlock
and come into the main
assembly facility.
The descent stage and the cruise
stage are here already.
The rover now joins them so
that the whole spacecraft
can be put together
and ready for Mars.
We can then remove
the inner bag.
This is a big moment!
All the components that will
control the actions of the rover
--all the instruments that will
be looking for things on Mars
go inside this chassis,
as it forms the foundation
for the entire rover.
Starting from a pile of
aluminum panels,
it took 4 months and
over 5,000 work hours
to get the chassis
to this point.
It'll take another 3 or 4 months
in the assembly facility
to turn this chassis into
something that looks like
a completed rover.
It'll be an amazing day
for all of us
to see this rover on top of the
rocket in July of 2020.
[ ♪ ]
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute
of Technology
