Few things are as annoying as a pebble in your horseshoe that you just ca n’t shift . Turns out , this extremely Earthly issuing is also a problem on Mars , as the rover Perseverance has discovered .
The trespasser – a small rock – was snap lodge inside one of the rover ’s six aluminum wheels by its Onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera onFebruary 25 , 2022.Thanks to some dig through NASA ’s raw images byC|Net newsman Amanda Kooser , it appear to have been there since at leastFebruary 6 . Most likely the rover kicked it up while trundle around Jezero Crater , where it ’s been research since February last yr .
Ca n’t Percy just kick it out ? It was photograph again onMarch 2 , so apparently not – though it does n’t seem to be blockade the rover , or else just adding to its traveling companions .
It ’s possible the rock candy was pluck up during Perseverance ’s first farsighted AutoNav crusade . In February , the bird of passage break the record formost distance move in a single dayby a Mars rover at 320 m ( 1,050 substructure ) using its auto - pilotage part .
It ’s unlikely the rock ‘n’ roll is affecting the rover ’s carrying into action – Perseverance is , after all , the " biggest , heavy , cleanest , andmost sophisticated six - wheeled machinelike geologistever establish into space . "
Its wheel – contrive to hold the wear and tear seen on Curiosity ’s – are 52 centimeters ( 20.4 inch ) wide , with Ti spokes , built to withstand regolith from another planet . T’is but a careen .
“ It ’s not perceived as a danger . We ’ve seen these kinds of rocks get ‘ catch ’ in Curiosity ’s roulette wheel from time to time , too , ” a JPL representative toldGizmodo . “ They occur during cross - slope private road , and incline to shine out totally on their own after a while ( there ’s no particular way to get this rock out of our ‘ brake shoe ’ ) . These kinds of rock and roll do n’t affect driving other than making it a bit noisier . ”
So , will Percy bring its little travel fellow back home with it ? Gulp , Percy is n’t coming home . However , it iscollecting rock samplesto send back to Earth , with an count on launch home particular date of 2026 and an arriver back on Earth of 2031 .
Here ’s hop NASA scientists crack into those Mars stone samplessooner than they have done with their lunar samples , we ’d wish to still be active to see what they discover .
