NASA has spotted fresh gob in the wheel of the Curiosity roamer as it makes its way across the rugged and rocky aerofoil of Mars .
Fortunately , the cakehole are not expected to handicap the onward motion of the mission , but they are a reminder that , 225 million km ( 140 million miles ) from Earth , our unmanned machines can be damage beyond stamping ground . Future commission will need to be capable to deal with these issues .
We ’ve see harm to Curiosity ’s wheels before , asfar back as 2013 . This time around , two small breaks were seen in the left-hand middle wheel of the rover on March 19 , having not previously been there in the last check on January 27 . Specifically , they were in raised stride known as grousers , used by the wheel to grip the ground .
The solid aluminum cycle are 50 centimeters ( 20 column inch ) in diameter and 40 centimetre ( 16 inch ) astray , but they are only about half the thickness of a US dime bag . Each has 19 grousers , more or less stocky treads that extend about 0.75 centimeters ( 0.25 column inch ) further out .
test on the roulette wheel has shown that once three grousers on a wheel break , it will have reach about 60 percent of its utilitarian life-time . However , these late finding are not expected to impact the mission as a whole .
“ This is an expected part of the life cycle of the wheels and , at this point , does not alter our current scientific discipline plans or lessen our chances of studying key transitions in mineralogy higher on Mount Sharp , ” enounce Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada from NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in California in astatement .
Curiosity is continuing to make its agency up Mount Sharp , a central peak in the middle of Gale Crater . It is about 6 kilometers ( 3.7 miles ) from the highest point it is scheduled to reach , with the harm to the wheels not expected to affect reach this terminus .
How machinery degrades on Mars is actually quite an interesting head . With a much thinner standard atmosphere , but also home to widespread dust storms , machinery does gradually break down over time . The Spirit rover , for example , got baffle in loose soil and ultimately lost major power in 2010 .
One of the proposedlanding sitesfor NASA ’s coming 2020 Mars roamer is actually Columbia Hills , the same region that Spirit is in . If this situation is blame , NASA ’s new wanderer may get a chance to study its former ascendant and take a look at what the Martian surround has done to this unprotected piece of machinery .
