{"id":4339,"date":"2018-11-13T14:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adsknews.autodesk.com\/?post_type=news&p=4339"},"modified":"2019-04-02T18:46:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T22:46:51","slug":"nasas-jet-propulsion-lab-teams-autodesk-explore-new-approaches-designing-interplanetary-lander","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/adsknews.autodesk.com\/en\/news\/nasas-jet-propulsion-lab-teams-autodesk-explore-new-approaches-designing-interplanetary-lander\/","title":{"rendered":"Autodesk Teams Up with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Explore New Approaches to Designing an Interplanetary Lander"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2012, the world watched as the Curiosity rover parachuted to the surface of Mars and began collecting samples. The data and images it sent back have helped us learn more about the red planet and the possibilities for life there, and it\u2019s still on the job today. The mission was another important success for the designers and engineers at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But so far, little evidence of life on Mars has been found, past or present.

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An artist’s rendering of the interplanetary lander concept<\/p><\/div> Now scientists think the most likely places we\u2019ll find signs of life in our solar system lie on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. But these gas giants lie much further away. At 35 million miles, the trip to Mars was short compared to the 365-million-mile journey to Jupiter.\u00a0 And Saturn is another 381 million miles past that. Getting landers to these distant areas presents far greater design and engineering challenges. To meet those challenges, JPL and Autodesk have engaged in a multi-year collaborative research project so that JPL can explore new approaches to design and manufacturing processes for space exploration, with the custom application of Autodesk\u2019s generative design technology. Mark Davis, the senior director of industry research at Autodesk, was part of the team that first approached JPL about a collaboration. \u201cThey were clear that they weren\u2019t interested in incremental gains: if they were only able to improve performance by 10%, they basically weren\u2019t interested. If we could deliver software tools to help them achieve a performance improvement of 30% or more, then we had their attention. This project demonstrates that Autodesk technologies may deliver mass savings at this level.\u201d The concept lander, perhaps the most complicated structure ever created using generative design, was unveiled at Autodesk University<\/a> on November 13th <\/sup>2018 in Las Vegas.

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The fully-assembled lander measures approximately 2.5 meters across and 1 meter tall.<\/p><\/div> The Life of a Lander<\/strong> To accomplish a mission like this, an interplanetary lander needs to perform complicated operational functions in temperatures far below zero and withstand radiation levels thousands of times greater than on Earth. But first, it has to have enough fuel to get where it\u2019s going. In space exploration, weight at liftoff is one of the most critical considerations. Every kilogram of mass that can be cut from the structural payload enables a critical increase in the scientific payload of sensors and instruments to search for life beyond earth. <\/p>\n

Balancing the Proven with the Possible<\/strong> In some industries, it can be considered a good thing to \u201cfail fast\u201d or get to a \u201cminimum viable product\u201d as quickly as possible, then improve it. But in space exploration, failure comes at a high cost. A mission typically only has one shot at success, with few viable backup plans. It\u2019s understandable why the teams at JPL are careful when considering new processes. They stick with what works\u2014qualified materials like titanium and aluminum that they know will hold up in the harsh conditions of space, and manufacturing processes like CNC machining that are mission-proven. At the same time, they need to explore what new technologies can do for them, or risk being made obsolete by other companies. It\u2019s always a balancing act between what\u2019s proven and what\u2019s possible. Within the company, JPL\u2019s Atelier division is the team charged with trying out new approaches and processes, then recommending the ones that hold promise to the teams working on specific missions. \u201cWhat they do is carefully infuse new technology into their processes,\u201d says Karl Willis, Autodesk\u2019s technology lead on the project. \u201cThey know they have to explore new ways to do things while keeping risk at a minimum.\u201d
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Project team members carefully assembled the components of the lander at Autodesk\u2019s technology center in San Francisco.<\/p><\/div> Innovation by Design<\/strong> Generative design is a relatively new design approach that uses machine intelligence and cloud computing to quickly generate a broad set of design solutions that fit within the specific constraints set by engineers. It enables design teams to explore a much wider design space while still being bound by manufacturing and performance requirements dictated by the team or environment. A commercial form of generative design technology is available today in Fusion 360<\/a>, <\/u>Autodesk\u2019s cloud-based product development platform. Davis and his team in Autodesk\u2019s Office of the CTO continue to develop more conceptual advanced versions of the software for use in experimental capacities, such as with JPL. \u201cWe had developed a custom version of our software for high performance motorsports that enabled us to help our customers solve for multiple constraints at once. We then applied it to the problems JPL needed to consider,\u201d Davis says. \u201cWe took a system that was developed to help our customer solve system level suspension problems on a Formula One race car and applied new requirements for structural constraints critical to space exploration. This gave us a chance to push the capabilities of the software even further and help our customers solve even larger and more sophisticated problems.\u201d

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Three different manufacturing methods\u20143D printing, CNC milling and casting\u2014were used to fabricate the different parts of the lander.<\/p><\/div> Generative design is often associated with 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, which is well-suited for the complex, organic-looking shapes that the software produces based on user specifications. But the software also gives users the ability to set constraints for their other manufacturing processes. \u201cWe now have the ability to help our customers solve for their multiple manufacturing constraints simultaneously, which adds CNC machining and casting options in addition to 3D printing,\u201d explains Davis. And while other software programs can optimize a single part for stiffness and weight, Autodesk\u2019s generative design technology is unique in its ability to allow customers to take into consideration alternate design strategies and produce an entire array of viable solutions, rather than just a single optimized version. For the lander project, the JPL team explored the use of experimental generative design technology for multiple structural components, including the internal structure that holds the scientific instruments, and the external structure that connects the lander legs to the main payload box. The team has been able reduce the mass of the external structure by 35% compared with the baseline design that they started with.

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The team carefully connects the CNC-milled \u201clegs\u201d to the body of the lander.<\/p><\/div> Learn, Improve, Repeat<\/strong> A key benefit of generative design is that it enabled the JPL team to iterate their designs rapidly. \u201cAs a design matures and new performance or environmental data comes in, generative design can enable our customers to create new designs quickly,\u201d says Willis. Most design teams typically take 2-4 months to turn around a revised design, he points out. Working with generative design, that process can take place in 2-4 weeks. \u201cThat flexibility and speed to update an existing problem definition rather than starting from scratch, combined with the ability for customers to specify manufacturing constraints, make it a real paradigm shift for people designing these kinds of structures,\u201d Willis says. Creating a lander that can withstand the rigorous conditions of space across extreme distances is a massive challenge, and JPL\u2019s designers are investigating and using every new technology at their disposal. For now, the application of generative design is still officially considered a developmental research project within JPL. But taking the seemingly impossible and making it possible is JPL\u2019s specialty. Just as the computational power of mainframe computers helped the space program reach new heights in the 1960s, technologies like generative design are creating new possibilities in space exploration, enabling us to go further and learn more about our place in the universe. <\/div>\n

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The lander made its debut during the opening keynote of Autodesk University in Las Vegas on November 13, 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2012, the world watched as the Curiosity rover parachuted to the surface of Mars and began collecting samples. The data and images it sent back have helped us learn more about the red planet and the possibilities for life there, and it\u2019s still on the job today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4343,"template":"","categories":[10,8,11],"adsk_tags":[],"class_list":["post-4339","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-product_development","categories-product_design_and_manufacturing","categories-production"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAutodesk Teams Up with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Explore New Approaches to Designing an Interplanetary Lander | Autodesk News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adsknews.autodesk.com\/en-gb\/news\/nasas-jet-propulsion-lab-teams-autodesk-explore-new-approaches-designing-interplanetary-lander\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Autodesk Teams Up with NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to Explore New Approaches to Designing an Interplanetary Lander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2012, the world watched as the Curiosity rover parachuted to the surface of Mars and began collecting samples. 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