maxon at Space-Comm and Med Tech in March

In March, maxon UK & Ireland is showcasing its precision drive systems for space environments and med tech at the leading shows for both sectors in the UK.

Space-Comm Expo 2025 is taking place at London Excel, 11 and 12 March, and maxon will exhibit on stand B10.

Meanwhile, at Medical Technology UK at the Coventry Building Society Arena, 12 and 13 March, maxon will present on stand 113.

At the UK space event, maxon engineers will discuss its partnership with NASA throughout all the Mars missions launched to date. As a special feature at SPACE-COMM EXPO, maxon will display the electric drive systems used onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, as well as the motors used on NASA’s groundbreaking Ingenuity drone. Alongside the actual drive systems used onboard NASA’s spacecraft, maxon will also present a scale model of Ingenuity.

At Medical Technology UK, maxon UK is shwoing its new range of drive systems for surgical robots. The new High Efficiency Joints will be displayed alongside new, high torque density motors for prosthetics. maxon will also talk about its capabilities in ceramic manufacturing for surgical and medical OEM components.

Hibiscus: new possibilities in satellite thermal imaging

maxon has partnered with SuperSharp to provide drive systems for a revolutionary thermal telescope. Next year, SuperSharp will launch a new type of space telescope, opening possibilities to combat global warming and increase heat efficiency for urban planners.

Scheduled to be sent into orbit at the close of 2026 via a SpaceX rocket, Hibiscus is a new type of satellite that will bring down the cost of thermal imaging of Earth.

This will present the benefits of ultra-high resolution heat mapping to a wide range of applications, from managing the heat efficiency of buildings, through to optimising agricultural yield.

A key commercial advantage of Hibiscus is its low size and weight, combined with a folding design. As a result, the telescope will occupy a much smaller volume for its transit to space, making satellite thermal imagery commercially viable for a much larger market.

Once the telescope satellite has been set into orbit, a maxon drive system will help to deploy each unfolding mirror ‘petal’.

Read the full story on the maxon blog: https://www.maxongroup.com/en-gb/knowledge-and-support/blog/hibiscus-new-possibilities-in-satellite-thermal-imaging-256596

maxon presents NASA Mars missions at Magnetics in Space

At Magnetics in Space 2025, the UK Magnetics Society event which took place on 12 February at the Satellite Applications Catapult in Oxfordshire, Andrew Gibson, maxon’s UK lead for space & aerospace applications, presented a look behind the drive system technology onboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity drone.

In ‘25 Years of Exploration on Mars and Beyond’, Andrew explained the role of electric motor technology used throughout the history of NASA’s Mars missions. The presentation focussed on the current mission to the Red Planet, which has the objective of collecting Martian soil samples for research into signs of ancient microbial life.

The audience of UK Magnetics Society members included design engineers as well as academic engineers and scientists across applications involving magnetics. Electromagnetic flux flow is essential to the operation of electric motors, and the presentation explored motor design for space applications.

Onboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, electric motors and gearheads control the drill, required to access the sample material, as well as the sample handling system inside the rover. NASA is currently investigating the process to return the samples to Earth, planned for 2026. Electric motors were also used within NASA’s landmark Ingenuity drone in the control of the swashplate, responsible for the pitch of the rotors.

Andrew was a headline speaker alongside fellow presenters from British Geological Survey, UK academics, and leading organisations in space exploration.

World's largest solar-powered land vehicle on global tour

The SolarButterfly is the world’s largest solar-powered vehicle and is currently on a four-year journey around the world. The project aims to show the possibilities in the transformation from fossil fuels to clean renewable energies.

The team, including Martin Baumeler and Walter K?ppel, is currently travelling through South Africa and is now just outside Pretoria. Along the route, the team has presented the SolarButterfly and its story to hundreds of students.

The vehicle is fully self-powered. As well as sponsoring the project, maxon's drives are integral to the design. maxon drives are installed in the expandable walls and assist in the unfolding of the solar panels, which deploy in the shape of butterfly wings - hence the vehicle's name.

With a large wing span of 80 m2, the panels collect enough energy to enable the vehicle to drive up to 300km per day.

Learn more about the project here: https://solarbutterfly.org/

Find out more from maxon UK & Ireland at maxongroup.co.uk or find your maxon contact here.