Stein has been stuck in the wheel of the Mars probe for months

A rock stuck in a robot wheel millions of miles away? Looks like a serious problem. The NASA He’s now reporting on one of these rocky appendages that’s been traveling the surface of Mars with perseverance for several months. This is unusual but not a problem.

Perseverance now has a pet rock

It’s not always necessary for devastating discoveries to bring you closer to Mars, sometimes a short story from the daily life of a Mars rover will suffice. Such as NASA Comic titled “Persevere a Rock as a Pet,” a currently rolling robot helps a rock on Mars on a journey that is perhaps its greatest. About 4 months ago I got stuck in the front left wheel, after several kilometers it’s still stuck there.
The Rock has been traveling with perseverance for several months

“Since he joined our journey, he has traveled more than 8.5 kilometers,” said Eleni Ravanis, an assistant student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, of the unexpected companion. As Ravanese points out, the mission was not compromised by the boulder: “This piece did no damage to the wheel, but it held up well during its flight (without a doubt!)”.

away from home

But how can a rock hold itself firmly to the wheel? According to NASA-JPL spokesperson Andrew Good, the answer can be found in previous missions: “We’ve also been able to Curiosity “I’ve seen these kinds of rocks get stuck in the wheels from time to time,” Judd said. cnet. So when riding down a slope, rocks get stuck in the wheels, but they usually fall off very quickly.

The rock was first observed in February Pictures of the so-called Hazcam, which NASA uses to detect hazards in the craft’s planned route at an early stage. If he left Perseverance one day, he would definitely be far from where he was originally. “We can confuse a future Mars geologist a little bit with that,” NASA said.

See also:

Problems perseverance mars 2020, mars rover, tires, rocks
NASA