Page 24 - ConnectorSupplier.com 2019 Mil/Aero eBook
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Amphenol Aerospace is a world leader in designing, manufacturing, and supplying high-performance interconnect systems for military, commercial air, and industrial markets. The company’s 2M Micro-Miniature Connectors are designed for harsh-environment interconnect applications that require high performance and are 71% lighter and 52% smaller than other connectors in their class, even though they also have a 60% higher contact density. These microminiature connectors are designed and tested to mil-spec standards, are comparable to MIL-DTL-38999 connectors, are intermateable and intermountable with existing microminiature aerospace and defense connectors, and can maximize size, weight, and power (SWaP) in a variety of high-reliability, harsh environment applications.
Outgassing (i.e., the release of gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in materials) is a serious concern in space applications because electronic components can be susceptible to released gasses and their resultant effects, such as internal condensation, and especially so within environments that may experience different atmospheric pressures than those on earth. Additionally, extraordinary efforts are taken to ensure that interconnect designs help maintain system performance integrity against harsh environment conditions including extreme shock and vibration and physical torture and stress.
Harwin manufacturers a variety of high-reliability interconnects suitable for use in harsh environments by virtue of being designed to withstand extreme vibration, shock, and temperatures. Products such as the Harwin Datamate Family Connectors feature high-reliability, four-finger beryllium copper (BeCu) contact technology that ensures lossless data connections in even the most severe conditions by offering 100G shock, 40G bump, 10G vibration resistance and rated operating temperatures extending from -55°C to +125°C.
Conclusion
In the future, scientists hope to use CIMON to observe the group effects that develop in small teams over extended periods of time, such as during extended missions to the moon and eventually Mars. They also hope to use CIMON to understand more about the social interaction between humans and machines, which is significant because, as Eisenberg said, service robots acting as flight attendants could potentially play an essential role in long spaceflight missions.
All in all, CIMON is pretty impressive for a robot created on a 3D printer and built with commercially available, off-the-shelf sensors and space-grade connector and cabling technologies in a span of less than two years. That timeline is impressive for just about any application but — for the space industry — it is epic.
Visit Mouser Electronics online.
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