It's had a tough journey, but it's still trucking
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover
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A lemmy community for scientific discussion of the Curiosity Rover and Mars Science Laboratory.
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I read an article a while back that said JPL estimates critical wheel damage (14 out of the 19 treads snapping) to occur around 2034. That won't be the end of the rover though, they have a plan. Once damage passes that point of no return, they'll deliberately snap off the inner two thirds of the wheel and keep going on just the stronger outer third. https://spectrum.ieee.org/if-necessary-mars-rover-curiosity-could-rip-its-own-wheels-off-to-stay-mobile
The people working on this are truly incredible. I'm always extremely happy to read about these kinds of endeavors - so many people can do incredible things when given the time and funding.
I can barely plan what I'm gonna wear today, and these guys figured out how their wheels would fail, when their wheels would fail, and how they're gonna fix them, 25 years in advance, and on a different planet.