Mars mission 2020DC micromotors for the first Mars helicopter
In two years' time, the US space agency NASA will be sending a new rover to the Red Planet. On board: a helicopter that will take the first aerial photos of Mars. The rotors are controlled by small DC motors from the Swiss company Maxon Motor.
... Maxon Motor is involved in several Mars projects - such as the ExoMars rover of the European Space Agency ESA. More than 50 drives are installed in these, including in the wheels, the drill head, the analysis unit and the camera mast. This project will also start in 2020, but NASA's stationary InSight unit will land on Mars much earlier - on November 26, 2018 - to investigate seismic activity and the planet's core temperature. A robust DC motor from Maxon Motor will drive the InSight measuring probe almost five meters deep into the Martian soil.