Mars Rover Spirit Down a Wheel

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Saturday March 18, 2006 @03:37PM from the little-rover-that-could dept.

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."

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Re:Failed brushes? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-03-18 16:56 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.