New photos reveal several sizable holes in one of the wheels of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, highlighting the toll that 12 years of scrambling across the Red Planet’s harsh landscape have taken on the intrepid roaming robot.
Curiosity first touched down on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012 and was initially only expected to last for two years. But the hardy rover has defied expectations and has lasted 4,323 Martian days, or Sols, on the Red Planet, traveling more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) around the Gale Crater, where it originally landed.
During this time, Curiosity has been used by scientists to study Mars’ sky, search for signs of alien life and spy on the far side of the sun. The rover has also spotted numerous oddities on the Red Planet including a book-shaped rock, a mineral flower, an iconic Star Trek symbol and a mysterious “alien” doorway, among others.
However, new photos taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and released by NASA on Sept. 24 reveal that the rover’s epic journey has taken a toll on the robot’s middle right wheel. The images show several large tears in the wheel’s heavily scratched tire, including one particularly large hole that reveals the wheel’s inner mechanisms. It is currently unclear when these holes first emerged or if any of the rover’s other wheels have suffered similar damage.
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The damage may look bad but Curiosity “is still holding up well despite taking some of the worst abuse from Mars,” mission operations engineer Ashley Stroupe wrote in the statement.
There is no indication that the rover will stop anytime soon. But if it did, it would join a growing list of recent robotic casualties on Mars, including China’s Zhurong Mars rover, which was revealed to have met its end last year after months of speculation around its inactivity, and NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which sent its final message to Earth in April.
This is not the first time that the wheels of one of NASA’s Mars rovers have made headlines recently.
Back in 2022, researchers noticed that NASA’s newest rover Perseverance had picked up a “pet rock” that became stuck inside the drum of one of the robot’s wheels. This hitchhiking pebble remained with Curiosity’s successor for more than a year before becoming dislodged in April 2023.
Given the size of the largest hole in Curiosity’s wheel, it seems likely that pebbles or dirt could have also ended up inside the rover’s rims, but this has not been confirmed.
