Bringing Generative Designs To Life

Sending a rover to Mars to collect rock, soil and atmosphere samples is challenging enough. Retrieving the samples and bringing them back to Earth has never been done.

To retrieve samples collected by the Perseverance rover and transport them to Earth for analysis, NASA and the European Space Agency jointly developed the Mars Sample Return mission. The robotic systems and Mars ascent rocket needed to complete the mission include multiple subsystems, and Newton LLC was tasked with delivering the capture lid mechanism (CLM), a subsystem of the capture containment and rendezvous system, said Alex Miller, mechanical engineer and deputy engineering lead for the Riverdale, Maryland, provider of “mission-critical components that advance science, exploration and humanity.”

For one component, the CLM arm, Newton designed it using the generative artificial intelligence tool within Autodesk’s Fusion 360, a CAD, CAM, CAE and PCB software platform, Miller noted. Using machine learning and an AI algorithm, an end user can, for example, define interfaces and loading conditions for a proposed part.

“It’ll spit out 30, 40, 50 different versions and tell you the performance characteristics of all those options,” Miller said, adding that the software also generates projected costs. “I can go in there and say, ‘This one looks to be the best option for the application. This has the best stiffness-to-mass ratio and it’s within our cost budget.’ It’s a pretty fascinating tool.”

In addition to reducing the design process time for such a complicated component from weeks to hours, the generative AI-designed part is at least 30% lighter than if a human designed it, according to Miller. The aluminum 606 part weighs 0.39 kg (0.86 lbs.).

Newton has its own machine shop, but scheduling constraints to complete other projects prevented the company from machining it in-house, he said. “We eally wanted to give it a try, but it was most feasible to go out of house for that specific part. Producing a part like this through CNC machining is not a trivial task.”

Baker Industries machined this CLM arm for Newton Industries, which attaches the circular lid to the capture lid mechanism subsystem of the capture containment and rendezvous system. Newton

Miller said Newton began its search for a machine shop to produce the CLM arm and selected Baker Industries, a Lincoln Electric company, in Macomb, Michigan, based on recommendations from research engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. One of the engineers was Ryan McCelland. “Ryan has been leading the effort at Goddard Space Flight Center to develop the processes to ensure that we’re reducing risk as much as possible when implementing this generative design technology.”