That's what 12 years on Mars did for Curiosity's wheels

NASA The Curiosity rover has landed on Mars Back in 2012 and it has been up and running ever since Exploring the surface of the red planet. In the process, the rover passed more than 20 miles from the lunar surface, which wasn't very pleasant. On its little roving wheels.

In new Update on NASA's Curiosity missionthe space agency shared some insights into the wear and tear Curiosity has gone through during its 12 years on the Red Planet. During that time, a distance of 20.13 miles was covered, and while that may not seem very far, the surface of Mars has wreaked havoc on the rover's tiny wheels.

The check-in on Curiosity's wheels comes as the rover reaches its 4,315th sols on Mars, which is equivalent to one Martian day. NASA explained in a blog post They do this type of inspection from time to time to see how the vehicle “holds up on rough terrain.”

by Point the cameras at curiosity From beneath its wheels, engineers on Earth can see the wear and tear on the six wheels it uses to traverse the Martian landscape. Despite only covering 20 miles on the red planet, the wheels are looking a bit rough around the edges now, CNET reports.

While driving over the rugged, rocky Martian landscape, I picked up curiosity Some punctures in its wheels, while the tread pattern appears to remain intact. As CNET reported:

NASA is not sweating the situation. The damage has been building for years, so the rover team came up with some clever solutions to extend the life of the wheels. The team checks the vehicle's path and tries to avoid particularly bad terrain. Curiosity can also drive backwards over rough patches to reduce stress on certain wheels.

Curiosity regularly inspects its wheels. It takes multiple sets of images and drives to reveal different parts of the wheels.

A tear in a Martian wheel is not as serious as a tear in a tire on your Hyundai Elantra; Curiosity does not use the same type From the air-filled rubber tires you find here on Earth. Instead, the vehicle's six aluminum wheels consist of six spokes, a reinforced ring to retain their shape, and a simple chevron pattern on the outside to aid traction.

NASA reports that this type of corrosion was “expected” on the outside of the wheels, since aluminum is thinner between the blades. This means that the gaps in the tread pattern are vulnerable to the type of damage they have already picked up.

In fact, the damage observed on Curiosity helped the agency improve the wheel Design for its Perseverance rover, Which landed on Mars in 2021. The new rover features larger diameter wheels and a closer, straighter tread pattern that should help the edges last longer.

Maybe this means Elon Musk won't have to pack a set of spare tires for the rover On his missions to Mars, which he claims will come in the next few years.