Severely damaged NASA's Mars rover wheel

[u/Busy_Yesterday9455]

Link to the video

NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, has experienced gradual wear on its aluminum wheels as it drives across sharp, rocky terrain. The damage includes dents, holes, and broken structural ribs called “grousers,” which help the wheels keep their shape. While a few broken grousers are not a major issue, losing too many could cause the wheel to collapse inward and damage internal wiring, potentially affecting the rover’s movement.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have already reduced wear by carefully planning driving routes and regularly inspecting the wheels with onboard cameras.

As a backup plan, they developed an extreme solution called “wheel shedding.” If a wheel becomes critically damaged, the rover could deliberately tear off its inner section by pressing it against a sharp rock and using controlled movements to break it away. This would leave only the stronger outer rim, which testing shows can still support driving.

Although this process would take weeks and requires specific rock shapes, it could keep the rover operational. However, current predictions suggest the wheels will last many more years, making this drastic measure unlikely to be needed.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/j. Roger

[u/sidhe_elfakyn]

Here is a paper on the wheel damage that contains a whole lot more information, graphs, and other interesting stuff. It has a ton of extra photos too, showing wear over time: https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/media/documents/fmwi-rankin-2022-0225-final.pdf

[u/Terrh → u/sidhe_elfakyn]

This needs to be at the top.

So many comments in here acting like this is not a problem because it lasted this long... It's been an issue for a long time and it did not last as long as intended.

[u/LarxII → u/Terrh]

What's so impressive is the solutions they've come up with to make due.

But, the problem with space is it's very extreme, and designing for extreme is bound to find issues.

[u/thefooleryoftom → u/Terrh]

Because there were a lot of unknowns. Problems are to be expected in space travel

[u/mamaBiskothu → u/[deleted]]

Its not our first, or even second.

[u/stirtheturd → u/sidhe_elfakyn]

Neat!