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Reaction wheel bearings are notorious for failing, having killed numerous science spacecraft. I remain amazed that they have not standardized on magnetic bearin
by Daniel_Newby 13y ago
Reaction wheel bearings are notorious for failing, having killed numerous science spacecraft. I remain amazed that they have not standardized on magnetic bearings.
- sbierwagen 13y agoPower draw?
- BlackAura 13y agoIt's possible that there's some engineering reason why they haven't. From a quick search and skimming a couple of research papers, it looks like magnetic bearings are used on smaller craft, but it sounds like they're still being actively developed for larger craft. I guess the tech might not have been available for use on Kepler when they were designing it (they seem to have started design work in the late '90s sometime), or it had some kind of limitation or drawback that they couldn't accept.