Motors for Dusty & Extremely Cold Environments (MDECE)

Completed NASA Game Changing Development project led by Glenn Research Center that matured an unheated magnetically geared motor and an unheated piezoelectric motor for long-duration operation in extreme cold and lunar dust. MDECE targets lubrication-free mechanisms for rovers, robot arms, drills, gimbals, and landers, reducing heating power, mass, and lifetime penalties in permanently shadowed and polar regions while validating the actuators in representative lunar environments.