Driven by maxon motor, of course

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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

Mars rovers just keep on going

Driven by maxon motor, of course!

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 of that company’s famously dependable motors.

maxon had already provided the drive motors for the Sojourner rover in 1997, and was heavily involved again in NASA’s current Mars expedition which began in June 2003.  The plan was for two identical rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to explore different regions of Mars to find out more about its geological conditions.  One of their key tasks has been to look for signs of the existence of water.

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