[Kayra]

If the motor fails by seizing then I can see that.
if the motor fails because of an open coil then it would be best to have 4 wheels powered by separate motors.

If say the front right fails, you can shut down the front left and just use the 2 rear motors to travel.

It does give you some form of redundancy, but at the cost of a greater likelihood of failure (4 motors).

A decision like this would likely be influenced by our estimated MTBF under full lunar conditions.

If the estimated MTBF is high then our greater concern will be getting stuck

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Kayra

If the motor fails by seizing then I can see that.
if the motor fails because of an open coil then it would be best to have 4 wheels powered by separate motors.

If say the front right fails, you can shut down the front left and just use the 2 rear motors to travel.

It does give you some form of redundancy, but at the cost of a greater likelihood of failure (4 motors).

A decision like this would likely be influenced by our estimated MTBF under full lunar conditions.

If the estimated MTBF is high then our greater concern will be getting stuck

Is this more like it? (Close to my original vision...)

[Kayra]

Nice.

What is the scale on that?

[TheBigDog]

Originally Posted by Kayra

Nice.

What is the scale on that?

Not sure. I just discovered the world of "RC Rock Crawlers". This is exactly the genre we are looking for. 4WD, articulating bodies to keep the feet on the ground. They can move through very extreme environments. If we are not positive that we will land on a flat open plain then we need to be sure we can still get around. I would want to have a wider base than most of these, as I want to prevent rolling, where they don't mind it so much in this sport.

I found a decent kit that is 1/10 scale which would give me the chassis, motors, wheels, etc. What I don't know is how well some of the shock absorbers and springs would function on the moon. I also want fenders to prevent flinging dust all over the place - they mention this quite often in the write ups about the lunar rovers used for Apollo.

I want 1/10 scale at a minimum, but I would prefer to find 1/6, I think.

Bill

[TheBigDog]

John and I just came home with an E-Maxx. We are going to use it as the base for our prototyping and experimentation. Pictures to follow.

Bill