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The European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin Rover is due for launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan in Summer 2022, with a target to land on the surface of Mars in March 2023. Once arrived it will be tasked with identifying signs of water-rich minerals, that could indicate potential for past life. Key to these investigations will be the Optical Bench that will be the eyes of the rover, containing two stereo cameras, a mono high definition camera and array of electronics. Known as the Pan Cam this device was developed and manufactured by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, the home of UCL’s Department for Space & Climate Physics.
The optical bench comprises a box with separate top and bottom, machined from 5083 grade aluminium, that are joined together using electron beam welding techniques. Machining was completed in the laboratory’s workshop in Surrey using an XYZ Machine Tools smallest vertical machining centre. Due to the complex design, there are some extremely fine details to machine, such as an O-ring groove around the lid, measuring just .35 mm wide, as well as numerous M1.6 threaded holes, which were thread milled using the latest tooling from Ceratizit. The other challenge was that the parts had to be machined from billet material, with the machine and tooling having some extremely thin wall thicknesses to contend with.
