FUTEK To Sponsor Families Forward Gala

September 9, 2019

IRVINE, Calif.: FUTEK is proud to announce its participation again in 2019 as the sole Presenting Sponsor for this year's Gala in September to celebrate the successes of this year and pay a very special thanks in honoring CEO Margie Wakeham as she retires following 26 years of leadership and commitment to helping homeless families return to a safe place to live and regain self-sufficiency.

FUTEK actively supports Families Forward’s Mission to help families in need achieve and maintain self-sufficiency through housing, food, counseling, education, and other support services. FUTEK recognizes that one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population is working families with children struggling to make ends meet. The high cost of basic living, including rent, transportation and childcare, coupled with the significant lack of affordable housing, puts many families at risk. More than 28,000 school-age children in Orange County are homeless or housing-insecure. To this end, FUTEK was the sole Presenting Sponsor for Families Forward's 2018 Gala, the organization’s primary recognition and fundraising event of the year. Other ways we support their Mission:

Since we are right next door to the Families Forward headquarters and distribution center we have been instrumental in providing overflow parking for many of their weekend outreach events to facilitate the logistics necessary for serving over 800 local families.

FUTEK has been on call to support their logistics needs using our forklift to unload large donations from trucks provided by other corporate supporters.

Food drive support at Thanksgiving for the past five years. Includes individual food donations from our team members as well as cash donations used for bulk purchases at Costco to supplement the individual donations.

About Families Forward: Families Forward is an Orange County, California non-profit association that exists to help families in need achieve and maintain self sufficiency through housing, food, counseling, education and other support services.

About FUTEK: FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology, Inc. is a U.S. Manufacturer of load cells, torque sensors, pressure sensors, multi-axis sensors and related instruments and software. Located in Southern California, FUTEK has built a reputation as a quality provider of test and measurement tools. As the Sensor Solution Source, FUTEK supplies test and measurement products to many industries, especially medical, robotic, and aerospace.

For more information about FUTEK visit http://www.futek.com.

Celebrating Mars Rover Curiosity

August 14, 2019

Seven years ago, Curiosity touched down on Mars following a nine-month, 350 million-mile journey from Earth. Since then the rover has sent back invaluable data from the red planet (it has traveled 13 miles and traversed 1,207 feet to its current position). One of the goals of Curiosity is to gain more information on the existence of water on Mars. The stumping question scientists hope to answer is: what caused the end of water on the planet?

FUTEK load cells and torque sensors control the mission-essential robotic arm that provides force and torque feedback to the robotic arm controller. After the original drill-stabilizing function failed, FUTEK sensors were repurposed to resume sample drilling. After the failure, NASA engineers tested out numerous solutions to see how they could continue drilling on Mars. This extraordinary feat came in the form of using the multi-axis force sensors in the robotic arm to push the drill bit forward as it spins in a new technique called Feed Extended Drilling (FED). These innovative approaches by the JPL mission controllers have allowed Curiosity to surpass its planned nine-month mission.

We look forward to following NASA and the Curiosity mission as it continues to send back extraordinary science from the surface of Mars.