Space Age on Earth

An engineer and his team want to make money on Mars and then bring the tech back to earth

Rene Fradet has dreams for his small company that are out of this world. His plan: make money on Mars, and then bring that technology back to Earth. For nearly nine years, Alliance Spacesystems Inc. has been creating robots to explore the red planet for NASA, while dabbling in devices for everyday earthlings.

8216;8216;We8217;re focused on the aerospace market,8217;8217; said Fradet, one of three engineers who left the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start ASI. 8216;8216;But we8217;re looking to apply that to the commercial market.8217;8217; For now, the Pasadena company8217;s primary mission is making machines to function on other planets. There8217;s a robot that hops, a contraption that digs for interesting gases and a tiny camera on wheels, among other things.

The aerospace company8217;s biggest success has been the robotic arms it engineered for NASA8217;s Mars rovers. The contract for the arms, which allow the two rovers to probe the Martian soil, propelled the company8217;s initial growth in late 1997. Now, with about 600 projects under its belt, ASI is more than doubling its size by acquiring Vision Composites Inc., a California-based company that specialises in manufacturing aerospace equipment out of lightweight, hi-tech composite materials.

ASI8217;s latest venture is a 5 million robotic arm for another Mars rover called the Phoenix, which was commissioned by the nearby JPL. Last week, the 7-ft arm was lying on a lab table in a sterilised 8216;8216;clean room8217;8217; aglow with fluorescent lights and waxed tile floors. Passers-by could observe the company8217;s newest addition from an oversized interior window, much like looking in on a newborn at a hospital.

8216;8216;That is the robotic arm that8217;s on Mars right now,8217;8217; Fradet said, pointing up at a photo of the Mars rover Opportunity, tacked onto a bulletin board above his head. The other rover, called Spirit, also sports an ASI arm.

When we design, it8217;s strictly for engineering purposes,8217;8217; Fradet said. 8216;8216;We think it8217;s creative, but it8217;s not very artistic.8217;8217; That8217;ll have to change if Fradet8217;s future ideas for human services ever launch. He said that making it big on Earth8217;s consumer market will bring a whole new world of challenges. So far, ASI engineers have designed several isolated nonspace items. They made part of a rocket for display at Disneyland, a keyboard support for R038;B group Boyz II Men and a camera boom case guard for the producers of 8216;8216;Herbie: Fully Loaded,8217;8217; to keep the cameras on the car steady as the hyperactive VW Beetle bobbled around the big screen.

8216;8216;We seem to attract these people who have ideas and can8217;t find solutions for them,8217;8217; Fradet said. Fradet8217;s final frontier is to 8216;8216;take technology from outer space and apply it to commercial entities,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;But we have to be careful because the grass always seems greener next door.8217;8217;

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One of the things he8217;s considering is a lightweight, foldable scooter8212;with a robotic arm. 8216;8216;Maybe it could help feed an elderly person or reach something they can8217;t reach,8217;8217; Fradet said.

Fradet, 47, joked that he started the company when his wife was pregnant with triplets and probably too weak to protest such a venture. If it didn8217;t work out, Fradet told himself, he could always go back to JPL or work for some other large aerospace corporation. 8216;8216;I was never concerned about putting bread on the table for my family,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;And once that fear got put aside, then the issue was, 8216;Why not?8217; 8217;8217;

8216;8216;I went on a path that was very interesting and I was always interested in starting my own company,8217;8217; Fradet said. 8216;8216;A lot of this is wishful thinking. But by wishing, sometimes it works.8217;8217;

Tanya Caldwell