In early 2013, NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Curiosity Rover became the first robot ever to drill into the surface of Mars, penetrating the sedimentary bedrock to find evidence of wet environmental conditions from many centuries ago. More than 70 gears produced and manufactured by Forest City Gear helped actuate Curiosity’s mobility systems and the robotic arm responsible for all critical drilling operations.

However, this wasn’t the first time our gears had gone to Mars. We produced gears for the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers that landed in 2004 and operated well beyond their anticipated mission life.

You can even find our gears on the International Space Station, where there is no room for error. Our high-performance gears enable the operation of winch systems like winches and radio antenna drives. In fact, some of our best customers are our competitors who call on us when they need help producing the highest-quality gears.