After a long time traversing the rugged surface of Mars, the wheels of the Curiosity rover have sustained significant punctures but remain operational.
The rough terrain in Gale Crater on Mars has left substantial punctures on the aluminum wheels of the Curiosity rover (NASA), as reported by Space on February 8. Although the wheels appear severely damaged, the rover is still capable of continuing its journey on the Red Planet for some time.
Curiosity Mars rover wheel on January 27, 2022. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The current specifications are expected to be sufficient to support Curiosity for the remainder of its mission, according to Andrew Good, a spokesperson at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages the Curiosity mission. “The punctures and tears on the rover’s wheels always look worse than they actually are,” Good added.
Curiosity is roughly the size of a car. This rover landed in Gale Crater in August 2012 with the mission of determining whether the area ever supported microbial life. The rover later discovered that, in ancient times, Gale contained a system of lakes and rivers with the potential to support life. This system could have existed for millions of years.
Since September 2014, Curiosity has been climbing the 5.5 km high Sharp Mountain within Gale Crater. The rover studies rock layers during its journey, searching for clues about the transformation of ancient Mars from a relatively warm and wet planet to the cold, barren place it is today.
To date, Curiosity has traveled a total of 27.14 km on Mars, much of which has been on rugged, rocky terrain. The wheels began showing signs of wear and tear relatively early in the mission, prompting scientists to implement several mitigation measures, such as choosing routes that navigate through flatter terrain when possible and using software for “traction control” to adjust the rover’s speed according to the type of terrain.
These measures seem to have been effective, Good noted. The team recently started taking inspection photos of the wheels every 1,000 meters traveled instead of the usual 500 meters.
Information regarding the wheel wear of Curiosity has been beneficial for the design of NASA’s next Mars rover, Perseverance. This rover landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021. Its wheels are slightly larger in diameter and have double the number of treads compared to Curiosity’s wheels. Additionally, the treads on Perseverance’s wheels are designed to be slightly curved rather than V-shaped. Unlike Curiosity, Perseverance does not leave a “JPL” signature in Morse code on the Martian surface.
