InSight: a new Martian challenge for Axon’ Cable

27 Nov 2018

InSight, the 12th mission of the NASA’s discovery programme, has just landed on Mars. The objective of the mission is to study the interior structure of the Red Planet and help scientists to understand how the rocky planets of our solar system were shaped. Axon’ Cable has contributed to the mission by supplying dedicated interconnects to the SEIS seismometer, the most important instrument of the mission.

Axon’ on board SEIS

Axon’ has contributed to this Martian mission by providing flat and round interconnects terminated with miniature connectors  to the customer SODERN, one of the organization involved in the manufacture of the SEIS instrument (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structures) . Specifically designed by Axon’ for a 7-month voyage and to withstand Martian “attacks”, the miniature connectors have undergone a battery of tests and validations: resistance to vibrations, extreme temperatures (-80°C), heat shocks (rapid changes of temperature from -55°C to +125°C in under a minute), electrical tests, etc. Made in Aluminum and even in Titanium for some, the miniature connectors are directly integrated to the seismometer. Their role: connect the sensors to the data processing system.

In the heart of Mars

Resulting from a partnership between the NASA and the CNES (French Space Agency), the mission InSight uses  the SEIS seismometer which  “will measure Mars’ tectonic activity to learn more about its structure, for example the size of its core and the thickness of its mantle”, states the CNES. The mission will help scientifists” to better understand the mechanisms that shaped the rocky planets in our solar system. “