paulhammond51554844 - "Tis but a scratch"
Flying_PenguinThey still got 20,000 miles left on them.
They still got 20,000 miles left on them.
At least :)
“Just rolled in to the shop” moment
“Just rolled in to the shop” moment
Customer: I’ve been doing some ‘Off-Roading’
Shop: How long were you driving off road?
Customer: Over the last 12.5 years (August 5, 2012)
Shop: Can we interest you in an extended warranty plan?
AussiemandeusI know they probably can’t but the way NASA has fixed things remote in the past i wouldn’t be surprised if they repaired it somehow
You know NASA too well… They do have a cunning plan…
Not exactly a repair, but when things get really bad, JPL has a plan to minimize risk with a “wheel shedding” maneuver…
You can read all about the plan here: …ieee.org/if-necessary-mars-rover-curiosity-could…
What is the skin made out of? Is it also aluminum? What ever happened to using nitinol or whatever that memory metal was for wheels where rubber wasn’t appropriate?
What is the skin made out of? Is it also aluminum
Each of the wheels were machined out of solid billets of aluminum, the skin is very thin, the thickness of a old soda can (back in the day when cans were thicker than today). The wheel spokes are made from titanium. I’m not sure what other materials were considered for the wheels on this mission, but there would have been alternatives like you mentioned.
For Perseverance Rover they also used aluminum wheels, but they added additional grousers and replaced the zig-zag design with a gentle curve that reduced the numbers of stress points dramatically. Other changes were also made, and the new designed wheels are performing great in and around Jezero crater, with only a few scratches after more than 1800 solar days on Mars
SubArcticTundraIt must be so agonizing watching this and knowing that this $M rover cannot be repared
Fear not, they have a plan - …ieee.org/if-necessary-mars-rover-curiosity-could…
Oh wow that’s cool!