Ingenuity’s first flight puts maxon in the history books

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its pioneering flight on Mars. This is the first time in history a powered, unmanned spaceflight device has flown in a controlled manner on another planet. maxon DC motors were onboard helping control the tilt and angle of the blades, which controlled the direction of flight.  

On Monday 19 April, NASA's Mars helicopter flew over the surface of the Red Planet for about 40 seconds and landed safely back on four legs. From NASA’s perspective, this is a historic event that can be classified similarly 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 flight units over a period of 30 days, lasting up to 90 seconds and bringing it to a maximum altitude of five meters.

The flight is also a great success for DC motor specialist maxon. The helicopter is equipped with six brushed DC motors, specifically modified for this challenge. The DCX series of drives, with diameters of 10mm, control the pitch of the rotor blades and therefore the route of the solar powered helicopter, which weighs only 1.8kgs. The lightweight design is a prerequisite for a successful flight on Mars, where there is hardly any atmosphere, making conditions similar to those at an altitude of 30km 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, tailored to individual application needs, visit shop.maxongroup.com

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 DC motors are also in the Perseverance rover, on the underside of which the helicopter landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. There are ten Brushless DC 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 when it positioned the Mars helicopter safely on the ground two weeks ago.

Read more about maxon's contribution to the Mars2020 mission at: mars.maxonworld.com

maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

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