Mars Rover Spirit Down a Wheel

riflemann writes "NASA is reporting that two years into its 90-day mission, Spirit has lost one wheel and is now running on five wheels, dragging the broken wheel. With this reduced mobiity, the rover still needs to make its way to a slope where it can catch enough sun over the Martian winter to keep it operating. 'Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars.', says project leader Dr. John Callas."

Comments

Failed brushes?

[dougmc]

"It is not drawing any current at all," said JPL's Jacob Matijevic, rover engineering team chief. One possibility engineers are considering is that the motor's brushes, contacts that deliver power to the rotating part of the motor, have lost contact.

Brushless motors are generally 1) more efficient and 2) longer lasting (with no brushes to wear out) and 3) more expensive (especially when you include the ESC, electronic speed control) than otherwise similar brushed motors. (But when you send something into space, who cares about an extra $1000 on motors?) I'm rather surprised that they didn't go brushless in something like this. Brushless motors are also cleaner, as there's no brushes to wear down over time. This is critical in zero gravity environments like orbit (nobody wants brush-dust floating around) and wouldn't be so important on Mars, but even so ... I wonder why they used brushed motors. Even if they things weren't supposed to last very long, you'd think brushless motors would be more efficient, giving them some extra power to work with, for not much extra money.

(My experience with brushed and brushless motors comes from R/C planes, where a brushless motor is sometimes twice as powerful and 50% more efficient than a similarly sized brushed motor. Of course, a large part of this is that the brushed motor is dirt cheap, made cheaply in every way, and the brushless motors are of higher quality, but even so, even when comparing high quality stuff (and not cheap speed 400 can motors) the brushless are signifigantly better.)

Re:Failed brushes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, having recently heard a talk with people from JPL I can tell you why. They went with brushed motors because it was what had been previously used and was, therefore, seen as a safe option. For future robotic missions they plan on using brushless motors.

Re:Failed brushes?

[v1]

Brushless motors are more complex, and require an array of active electronics inside them to produce the AC and modulating magnetic field they need to operate. Most brushless motors are lower torque than their brushed counterparts. (majority, I know there will be exceptions) Brushed motors are more mechanical in nature and suffer from the usual mechanical issues, but they are less prone to failure than brushless. Also, traveling through space and landing on a planet that may not have a protective magnetic field, active (transistor based) electronics must be carefully protected against emi that can disable or damage them.

I'm sure they went brushed for a variety of very good reasons. The technology of brushless was available when the rovers were designed, and I can't imagine NASA not seriously considering them.