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young pic discover several respectable holes in one of the wheels ofNASA ’s CuriosityMars rover , highlighting the toll that 12 yr of scrambling across the Red Planet ’s harsh landscape painting have call for on the intrepid roaming automaton .
Curiosityfirst touched down on Mars on Aug. 5 , 2012and was ab initio only expected to last for two twelvemonth . But the hardy wanderer has defy expectations and has lasted 4,323 Martian day , or Sols , on the Red Planet , traveling more than 20 miles ( 32 klick ) around the Gale Crater , where it originally land .
New images reveal a massive hole in the middle right wheel of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has exposed the inner mechanisms of the device.
During this time , Curiosity has been used by scientists tostudy Mars ' sky , search for signs of alien lifeandspy on the far side of the sunshine . The roamer has also blemish legion oddities on the Red Planet including abook - shaped rock , amineral flower , aniconic Star Trek symboland amysterious " alien " door , among others .
However , fresh photos take by Curiosity ’s Mars Hand Lens Imager ( MAHLI ) andreleased by NASA on Sept. 24reveal that the rover ’s epical journey has taken a toll on the robot ’s center right cycle . The images show several large tears in the cycle ’s heavily scratched tire , including one peculiarly large hole that reveals the bicycle ’s interior mechanisms . It is currently unclear when these muddle first emerged or if any of the rover ’s other wheels have suffered similar harm .
Related : Can you tell apart the hidden robot on the slopes of Mars ?
Several other smaller tears are also visible across the wheel’s heavily scratched tire.
The damage may look speculative but Curiosity " is still holding up well despite take some of the worst insult from Mars , " delegation operations engineerAshley Stroupewrote in the financial statement .
There is no indication that the wanderer will stop anytime soon . But if it did , it would bring together a growing list of late machinelike casualty on Mars , includingChina ’s Zhurong Mars rover , which wasrevealed to have met its end last yearafter months of speculation around its inactivity , and NASA ’s cleverness whirlybird , whichsent its final message to Earth in April .
This is not the first time that the wheels of one of NASA ’s Mars scouter have made headline recently .
— NASA ’s Curiosity roamer snaps extremely elaborated ' postcard ' of Martian landscape painting after waking up from a ' brain - boost nap '
— wonder rover discovers that evidence of past life on Mars may have been erased
— NASA ’s Curiosity rover circumstantially reveals radical - rarified sulfur crystals after crushing a rock on Mars
Back in 2022 , research worker notice that NASA ’s newest rover Perseverancehad beak up a " darling rock"that became stuck inside the drumfish of one of the golem ’s wheels . This hitchhiking pebble remained with Curiosity ’s heir for more than a yearbefore becoming dislodge in April 2023 .
Given the sizing of the largest hole in Curiosity ’s bicycle , it seems likely that pebble or poop could have also ended up inside the rover ’s lip , but this has not been confirmed .
