If the tire on your car fails , it ’s either a case of changing it yourself or get down someone to do it for you . For roamer on Mars , neither alternative is available .
The good word is that the wheels on NASA ’s robot vehicles are robust enough to keep on turn over even after stick out serious damage .
A pic lately beam to Earth by NASA ’s trusty Curiosity rover show significant damage to its midway right wheel , but the vehicle is still able to traverse the red planet ’s rocky terrain without too much difficulty .
“ These big wheels keep on turning , ” a substance accompanying the photo enjoin on Curiosity ’s XTC ( formerly Twitter ) account on Thursday . “ late photo of my bike got some of you worried , but I ’m here to reassure you , we ’re just fine ! The images aid my squad keep tabs on wear and tear . If it came down to it , I could shed part of them off and keep on rolling . ”
These big wheel keep on turning . 🛞
late photos of my wheels start some of you concern , but I'm here to reassure you , we're just fine ! The images help my team keep tabs on wearing and split . If it come down to it , I could throw off part of them off and keep on rolling.pic.twitter.com/h1oKLB3oW7
& mdash ; Curiosity Rover ( @MarsCuriosity)October 4 , 2024
Each bike is 50 centimeters in diam and 40 centimeters wide , and was machined from a single stop of aluminum . The wheels also have grousers ( treads ) that protrude 7.5 millimeter from the wheel skin . Since touching down inside Mars ’ Gale Crater 12 years ago , the scouter has move around around 20 international mile ( 32 kilometers ) across the ambitious martian surface , which is a whole pile of rolling .
It ’s not actually a large surprise that Curiosity ’s wheel is looking a little shattered and lacerated , as holes start appearing on the rover ’s wheels as early as 2013 , just a year after it touched down on the distant planet .
One of Curiosity ’s removed operatorssaid in 2014that when the team study some images of Curiosity ’s wheel betimes on in the mission , “ We saw a hole that was much larger than we had expected . This did not pit anything we had image in our trial . We did n’t know what was get it . We did n’t hump if it was going to continue . ”
After considering how to cut back the damage , the Curiosity team began selecting routes with less treacherous terrain , and in 2017 , they upload a fresh algorithm to the rover that altered each wheel ’s speed and helped to lessen the pressure from rocks that it come into link with .
roulette wheel damage has certainly slowed the progress of Curiosity and fix the paths that it can take , but the NASA team operating the mission arestill capable to achieve many impressive thingswith the spunky rover .
