Mars rover motors keep going
A
Maxon Motor UK product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Feb 21, 2007
ASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars exploration rovers each use 39 Maxon motors.
When NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars exploration rovers successfully landed on the red planet in January 2004, it was hoped that each would keep going for about three months and would cover a distance of a few hundred metres.
The fact that they are still going, three years later, is perhaps not so much of a surprise to the people at Maxon Motor.
Each rover features 39 Maxon motors.
Having provided the drive motors for the Sojourner rover in 1997, Maxon was heavily involved again in NASA's latest expedition to Mars which began in June 2003.
The two identical rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, were to explore different regions of Mars to find out more about its geological conditions.
The expedition's key task has been to study the surface for signs of the existence of water.
The decision to use Maxon motors was based on their excellent performance in the Pathfinder rover, as well as their extremely high efficiency level - 80 to 90% - which far exceeds other motors of this type.
The motors themselves are standard products with diameters of 20 and 25mm and only needed minor modifications to deal with the extremely harsh conditions.
The equipment had to be able to withstand enormous temperature changes on the surface of Mars - which can range from around -120C to 25C - as well as the vibrations and the special atmosphere.
The motors are used for operation of the robotic arms, rock drills and steering mechanisms, for controlling the cameras and for turning the six high-tech wheels that drive the heavy rovers (each weighing nearly 180kg) around the planet's surface.
The current rovers are much larger than their predecessor, the Sojourner, and with an average speed of around 1cm/s they are also around ten times faster.
They were designed to travel up to 40m per "sol", or Martian day - roughly equivalent to the distance the Sojourner covered during its entire 90-day mission.
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