Phison’s uSSD is Now on Mars

A Key Component in NASA’s Perseverance Rover

By | May 12, 2021 | News, All, Embedded, Technology

Over five years in the making, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission culminated with the successful touchdown of the Perseverance rover in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Many people worldwide tuned in live to watch the historic event. Despite a global pandemic, NASA was able to buoy the spirits of thousands of people interested in science, technology and space.

Both ground control and fans watching from home cheered aloud when the confirmation—and the first videos of the Mars surface—finally arrived. After sending audio and video to the staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Perseverance was ready to check systems and get to work on its mission of searching for suitable terrain for future human inhabitation of the red planet and signs of past life.

 

Phison’s uSSD is the right hardware for the job

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

 

Of course, it’s no surprise that the rover landed successfully in Jezero Crater. NASA and its partners have 25 years of rover successes to use as a foundation. However, it’s not just human ingenuity that makes a feat like this possible. Like the rovers that came before it, Perseverance landed successfully because it was built to withstand high speeds, extreme temperatures, and landing on Mars. Every component was picked to ensure the success of the mission.

At Phison, we’re proud that one of those components is one of our 8GB industrial-grade PSS4A111-8G uSSDs that was installed in the rover’s “brain”, a motherboard by CompuLab. The board also contains an Intel’s Atom® E3845 processor responsible for receiving, compressing, and assembling photos from the rover’s 23 cameras.

 

 COMEX IE38 includes Phison uSSD (Image Credit: CompuLab)

 

Because we already make products that have to survive extreme environments, including high and low temperatures, the uSSD is in line with NASA’s exploration tasks that require strong and stable storage products. This is thanks in part to the NAND flash optimization technology used in our uSSD.

 

 

Providing outstanding daily performance on two planets

This may be the first time that our products have traveled to Mars, but consumers may already have at least one of our products in their homes. While home users do not put their devices through the same rigors as NASA does, they’ve seen how well our products perform day after day. Both video game consoles and the Perseverance rover have limited physical space, another reason our uSSD was the right product.

Our VP of Engineering C.S Ma has expressed how the Mars 2020 mission recognizes our company’s long-term commitment to best-in-class industrial-grade solution. That commitment will continue as we produce controllers and storage solutions of “rocket quality” for all of our partners.

If your company needs industrial-grade and high-end storage solutions, contact us today. We can proudly say that we deliver products that are out of this world — literally!

 

View more images from Perseverance rover below.

Images: NASA Mars Exploration Program

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech
Image Credit:  NASA/JPL-Caltech

Over five years in the making, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission culminated with the successful touchdown of the Perseverance rover in Mars’ Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Many people worldwide tuned in live to watch the historic event. Despite a global pandemic, NASA was able to buoy the spirits of thousands of people interested in science, technology and space.

Both ground control and fans watching from home cheered aloud when the confirmation—and the first videos of the Mars surface—finally arrived. After sending audio and video to the staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Perseverance was ready to check systems and get to work on its mission of searching for suitable terrain for future human inhabitation of the red planet and signs of past life.

 

Phison’s uSSD is the right hardware for the job

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

 

Of course, it’s no surprise that the rover landed successfully in Jezero Crater. NASA and its partners have 25 years of rover successes to use as a foundation. However, it’s not just human ingenuity that makes a feat like this possible. Like the rovers that came before it, Perseverance landed successfully because it was built to withstand high speeds, extreme temperatures, and landing on Mars. Every component was picked to ensure the success of the mission.

At Phison, we’re proud that one of those components is one of our 8GB industrial-grade PSS4A111-8G uSSDs that was installed in the rover’s “brain”, a motherboard by CompuLab. The board also contains an Intel’s Atom® E3845 processor responsible for receiving, compressing, and assembling photos from the rover’s 23 cameras.

 

 COMEX IE38 includes Phison uSSD (Image Credit: CompuLab)

 

Because we already make products that have to survive extreme environments, including high and low temperatures, the uSSD is in line with NASA’s exploration tasks that require strong and stable storage products. This is thanks in part to the NAND flash optimization technology used in our uSSD.

 

 

Providing outstanding daily performance on two planets

This may be the first time that our products have traveled to Mars, but consumers may already have at least one of our products in their homes. While home users do not put their devices through the same rigors as NASA does, they’ve seen how well our products perform day after day. Both video game consoles and the Perseverance rover have limited physical space, another reason our uSSD was the right product.

Our VP of Engineering C.S Ma has expressed how the Mars 2020 mission recognizes our company’s long-term commitment to best-in-class industrial-grade solution. That commitment will continue as we produce controllers and storage solutions of “rocket quality” for all of our partners.

If your company needs industrial-grade and high-end storage solutions, contact us today. We can proudly say that we deliver products that are out of this world — literally!

 

View more images from Perseverance rover below.

Images: NASA Mars Exploration Program

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