NASA mission
Maxon motors control first Mars helicopter
In two years, NASA will be sending a new rover to Mars. On board: a helicopter that will take the first aerial photos of the Red Planet. The rotors will be controlled by small DC motors from Maxon.
The US space agency NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is sending a helicopter to the Red Planet as part of the next Mars 2020 rover mission. It will land on Mars in February 2021 and undertake several autonomous flights lasting up to 90 seconds in the first 30 days of the mission. For the first time on Earth, we will receive aerial images of Mars! The helicopter promises groundbreaking insights for future scientific and exploratory journeys to Mars. For example, the drone could serve as a flying eye for rovers in the future, exploring the surroundings and finding the best route.
Components for extreme conditions
It takes an enormous engineering feat for the small drone to fly. This is because the thin air on Mars is roughly comparable to the conditions that prevail here at an altitude of 30 kilometers. The helicopter must therefore be particularly light (1.8 kilograms) and can only carry small batteries. This requires the components used to be extremely energy-efficient.
This applies to the DC motors from Maxon. The drives from Switzerland have already proven themselves in many Mars missions and are also used in JPL's helicopter. Six precise small motors from the DCX series with a diameter of ten millimetres are responsible for controlling the inclination of the rotor blades - in other words, controlling the vehicle.
The helicopter propulsion system is designed and built by AeroVironment, an expert in the construction of small aircraft. The specialists at AeroVironment are working closely with the engineers at Maxon. After a year-long development phase, the recent NASA approval for the helicopter project is an additional source of motivation for the Swiss propulsion specialists.
Measuring the temperature of Mars
Maxon is currently involved in several Mars projects, such as the European Space Agency's (ESA) Exo-Mars rover - with more than 50 drives, including in the wheels, the drill head, the analysis unit and the camera mast. This project will also start in 2020, but much earlier - on November 26, 2018 - NASA's stationary Insight unit will land on the Red Planet to investigate seismic activity and the planet's core temperature. A DC motor from Maxon will drive the Insight measuring probe almost five meters deep into the Martian soil. as
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