Further damage to Curiosity’s wheels
For the original images, click here for the top photo and here and here
for the bottom photo.
The photo comparison to the right, created from high resolution images taken by Curiosity on Mars two months apart, provides us a new update on the state of the rover’s damaged wheels. It shows damage on the same wheel that I have been tracking for several years.
The numbers indicate the same treads, or grousers as termed by the science team. The “+” sign indicates spots where new damage has occurred since the previous photo.
The top photo was taken on June 3, 2022, and was the first to show new damage in more than five years. The bottom photo was taken on August 6, 2022, and shows that another small piece on the same grouser has broken off during the past two months.
Other than this change, however, the rest of the grousers appear unchanged. Moreover, a comparison with an earlier image of this same wheel taken in the summer of 2021 shows that grouser #6 as well as the unnumbered one just below appear also unchanged.
The damage in grouser #5 however is still concerning, and reflects the increasing roughness of the terrain as Curiosity climbs higher and higher on Mount Sharp. Though the science team has been very careful since the rover’s first few years on Mars to travel around obstacles that could damage the wheels, it apparently is becoming harder to do so.
However, even if this wheel eventually loses all the metal between the zig-zag grouser treads, the science team has said it has “proven through ground testing that we can safely drive on the wheel rims if necessary.” The team as also said they do not think that is likely, at least not for a long time, and based on the rate of damage documented by these pictures, this appears very true.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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For the original images, click here for the top photo and here and here
for the bottom photo.
The photo comparison to the right, created from high resolution images taken by Curiosity on Mars two months apart, provides us a new update on the state of the rover’s damaged wheels. It shows damage on the same wheel that I have been tracking for several years.
The numbers indicate the same treads, or grousers as termed by the science team. The “+” sign indicates spots where new damage has occurred since the previous photo.
The top photo was taken on June 3, 2022, and was the first to show new damage in more than five years. The bottom photo was taken on August 6, 2022, and shows that another small piece on the same grouser has broken off during the past two months.
Other than this change, however, the rest of the grousers appear unchanged. Moreover, a comparison with an earlier image of this same wheel taken in the summer of 2021 shows that grouser #6 as well as the unnumbered one just below appear also unchanged.
The damage in grouser #5 however is still concerning, and reflects the increasing roughness of the terrain as Curiosity climbs higher and higher on Mount Sharp. Though the science team has been very careful since the rover’s first few years on Mars to travel around obstacles that could damage the wheels, it apparently is becoming harder to do so.
However, even if this wheel eventually loses all the metal between the zig-zag grouser treads, the science team has said it has “proven through ground testing that we can safely drive on the wheel rims if necessary.” The team as also said they do not think that is likely, at least not for a long time, and based on the rate of damage documented by these pictures, this appears very true.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Metallurgists and design engineers still haven’t mastered contact with the environment(s) for which they were hired to manage.
Models aren’t reality.
How many rovers have had this same problem?
A seemingly shallow learning curve too long on the Time axis.
GaryMike: I think your comment might be a bit unfair. As far as I know, no other rovers have had this problem, and after it was spotted on Curiosity about seven years ago the design of Perseverance’s wheels was reworked to account for it. I do not expect Perseverance to experience any wear like this.
Mow many miles of wear does that damage represent?
M Puckett: The rover has traveled 17.7 miles over ten years, but that isn’t really a good guide. Almost all the damage occurred in the first four years or so, before engineers realized they needed to change how the rover traveled over obstacles. Since then there was little additional damage until the last six months, when Curiosity began moving into higher elevations where the terrain is rougher.
This old tanker says “Shoulda had tracks” – and before somebody brings up track tensioning, in the Challenger, that is accomplished by pulling a lever and the rest is done automagically
Robert Zimmerman Wrote: “GaryMike: I think your comment might be a bit unfair. As far as I know, no other rovers have had this problem …”
The previous rovers were smaller and lighter. Curiosity was a bold advancement in size, weight, and terrain. It is one of those learning experiences that builds character.
This is nothing about nothing.
Years ago, a State university wanted me to join their metallurgy Dept.
I look at those wheels and I see “fail”.
Sorry, I see “fail”.
I’m nothing, if not nothing.
Drama has a role in persuasion.
I still see “fail”.
“Hey, those rocks are going to be soft. right?”
Col Beausabre observed: “Shoulda had tracks”.
This might be more interesting than seems at a glance. I saw a sandbox demonstration of wheels v tracks, and, as expected, tracks won.
But there would only be two tracks, and if one fails for whatever reason, the vehicle is immobile. Two critical failure points (one each track), any one of which will render the vehicle essentially useless.
Curiosity has six wheels. Six critical failure points, so maybe some margin to work with. It seems even if one wheel fails completely, the vehicle would still be mobile.
Blair / Col Beausabre:
–yowza, just spent an inordinate amount of time at YT watching videos on “tracked vehicles.” Very interesting stuff, although short on technical specs, (at least the ones I watched)
Can I assume ‘tracked-propulsion’ is a fairly well-developed technology?
Off the top of my head– alternative methods feels like a weight limitation thing’ in play??
GaryMike,
Failure, yes. That is the point.
The wheels should not have seen damage like this. Due to this damage, Curiosity’s course has been detoured away from areas that the scientists preferred to examine to areas that they were not as curious about. Even now, Curiosity is on one such detour.
We can only ponder what we could have learned had the wheels been strong enough for the terrain that Curiosity should have been able to traverse.
“We can only ponder what we could have learned had the wheels been strong enough for the terrain that Curiosity should have been able to traverse.”
I think you will be able to as some people in a few years.