The Mars helicopter makes history - with maxon’s precision motors
Space fans are thrilled: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its pioneering flight on Mars. This is the first time in the history of powered, unmanned spaceflight that a device has flown in a controlled manner on another planet.
Space fans are
thrilled: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its pioneering
flight on Mars. This is the first time in the history of powered, unmanned
spaceflight that a device has flown in a controlled manner on another planet.
A short flight for
"Ingenuity," but a big success for unmanned space flight. NASA's Mars
helicopter flew over the surface of the Red Planet for about 40 seconds on
Monday, April 19th, and landed back on four legs. From NASA’s
perspective, this is a historic event similar to the Wright brothers’ first
controlled flight in 1903.
With the Mars helicopter, the concept
of powered, unmanned, and autonomous flights on foreign planets is being
tested. This is comparable to the first Mars rover “Sojourner”, which paved the
way for scientific follow-up missions such as "Curiosity" and
currently "Perseverance". "Ingenuity" is about to complete
several flights over a period of 30 days, each lasting up to 90 seconds and
reaching a maximum altitude of five meters.
Close-up view of the maxon DCX motors
Six micromotors control the
helicopter’s flight direction
The flight is also a great success for
maxon. The helicopter is equipped with six brushed DC motors, which have been
specifically modified for this challenge. The DCX series of drives, with
diameters of 10 millime...
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Six micromotors control the
helicopter’s flight direction
The flight is also a great success for
maxon. The helicopter is equipped with six brushed DC motors, which have been
specifically modified for this challenge. The DCX series of drives, with
diameters of 10 millimeters, control the pitch of the rotor blade and the
direction of flight for the helicopter, which weighs only 1.8 kilograms and is
solar-powered. The lightweight design is a prerequisite for a successful flight
on the Red Planet, where there is hardly any atmosphere, comparable to
conditions at an altitude of 30 kilometers on Earth. "The biggest
challenge in developing the motors was the extreme weight requirement,"
says Aiko Stenzel, design engineer at maxon. "Every tenth of a gram had to
be saved to make the helicopter fly. What's great is that despite the weight
savings, we found a drive solution that has enough power to adjust the rotor
blades. And this in the face of high vibrations and temperature
fluctuations." The standard variants of the DCX motors are available for
everyone and can be configured online according to the individual customer
specifications: shop.maxongroup.us.
Eugen Elmiger, CEO of the maxon Group,
watched the NASA transmission of the first flight data live and is thrilled:
"It is a fantastic feeling to know that our precision drives worked as
planned and that we were able to make our contribution to this historic event.
I am proud of our employees and look forward to the next milestones on Mars."
maxon’s drives are also used in the
Perseverance rover. There are ten BLDC motors and a special gearbox that will
be used, among other things, to handle the soil samples inside the rover. The
first of these motors has already successfully completed its task: It placed
the Mars helicopter safely on the ground two weeks ago.
Read more on maxon’s contribution to
the Mars2020 mission at: mars.maxonworld.com.
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Published by maxon on Apr 21, 2021
maxon
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