I was watching a documentary called Expedition Mars: Spirit and Opportunity (It's really good, I recommend it, you can find it on Disney+) and it said Spirit lost control of its frontmost right side wheel, how did this happen? was it a dust related issue, a age related issue, or a power related one?
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No explanation has been established for the wheel failure, although a motor brush failure is one possibility.
Organic Marble
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1I started wondering why they didn't use brushless, and of course that's already been answered. – Bob Aug 14 '22 at 01:03
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@Bob thanks for the link! I see in the comments that the wheel failure is mentioned there as well. – Organic Marble Aug 14 '22 at 01:38
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@Bob so I looked back on this question, and this is pretty old now, but I decided to do more research on the subject. I found some contradicting sources but one of the most common things I saw it that the current theory is an age-related brush failure. So brushless would've been better, but like you link states, the 90-sol requirement isn't enough to justify brushed motors. I've asked another question, take a look, https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/60754/is-a-re-usable-cygnus-possible – Deko Revinio Oct 25 '22 at 22:39