Phoenix Mission - successful landing on Mars
and again with maxon motors
On August 4th last year NASA started a new mission to our neighbouring red planet Mars. The major task of the Phoenix Mission is to look for signs of life, which means traces of water, on Mars. On board are two microscopes, an excavator shovel and seven maxon electro-motors.
On May 25th 2008, after a nine month journey, the American space vehicle «Phoenix Mars Lander» landed successfully on Mars. The flight time and destination were chosen carefully so that, for the first time, a probe has landed on the northern hemisphere at the beginning of the red planet's spring.
Since the first Mars landing in 1997, maxon motor has been a constant partner of NASA. The «Pathfinder» was fitted with 11 small maxon motors. Both probes «Spirit» and «Opportunity», which landed on Mars in January 2005, each have 39 maxon motors which are still working. The youngest project «Phoenix» is also supported by maxon motor. Not only will the probe search for visible water on our red neighbour but will also dig for traces of water with a robot shovel. An over 2 metre long robot arm will penetrate the thin layer of dust and rubble to lay bare the permanent ice on Mars. This is, at least, the hopes of the researchers of the University in Neuenburg who want to look at the soil samples with a special microscope, to assess if primitive life forms can be found beneath the surface of Mars.
Also on board the «Phoenix Mars Lander» are 9 DC motors manufactured by maxon motor in Sachseln. There are 4 DC motors with a diameter of 25mm used to deploy the two solar arrays which convert sunlight into electricity to supply the probe with energy. An additional 4 DC motors with a diameter of 20mm were used on each of the Phoenix robotic arm's 4 joints. The Phoenix is also equipped with a vibrating rasp in the scoop using a Maxon RE025. The youngest visitor to Mars has already sent its first impressions to us here on Earth. These can be viewed at
http://www.nasa.gov/.
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| The new Mars probe «Phoenix Mars Lander» |
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Author: maxon motor ag/27.05.2008
