Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know by now that NASA’s planning to send another rover to the Martian surface to investigate the planet’s past and potential habitability. Dubbed the Mars 2020 rover, this new rover will sport HD cameras and gadgets and gizmos for sampling the world around it.
But before a rover of this caliber can be shipped to Mars, engineers on Earth need to build it first. This video takes us behind the scenes, showcasing a just a few of the aspects that go into this incredibly time-consuming project.
One of the primary topics of discussion is the painstaking painting process that requires careful attention to detail. NASA uses only specially-formulated white paint that reflects sunlight to house all the Mars 2020 rover’s internal components, and then carefully transports the painted product from one facility to another to prevent imperfections in the paint job.
It’s crucial that paint only gets where it’s meant to go. Engineers carefully mask the portions that can’t be painted so that they remain bare metal throughout the manufacturing process.