MANY HANDS MAKE THE ROSETTA MISSION A SUCCESS

Motors Provided by FAULHABER and Maxon Motor Contribute to First Comet-Landing

By now you will have heard of the amazing achievement by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Co. last week, with the first ever successful landing of a spacecraft on a comet. The success of this project is down to the hard work of literally thousands of people, representing a whole host of agencies and companies. FAULHABER Group and maxon motor are two such companies that provided DC motors to the project.

FAULHABER contributed a total of 14 different drive systems, which like the maxon motor DC motors, have had to endure ten years of freezing temperatures and bleak conditions in space. A FAULHABER drive system provided “support during touchdown of the lander by converting kinetic into desperately needed electrical energy and finally into thermal energy by means of a spindle drive.” Additional FAULHABER DC motors were used to rotate the upper half of the lander to optimize the orientation of the craft’s solar panels.

Swiss-based maxon motor supplied the Philae lander with two DC motors, that were used to lower the APXS instrument (pictured below) to the comet’s surface. “The APXS is an alpha x-ray spectrometer that is used to record the chemical composition of Chury (Comet 67P) and provide information on the presence of key elements such as carbon and oxygen.” The Rosetta project iss scheduled to continue until the end of the 2015, but Philae’s awkward landing has left the craft in almost perpetual darkness, therefore its solar batteries will take longer to recharge. Despite this the ESA is said to be “hugely happy with what was achieved in the 60 hours following landing.”