Looks like the Mars rock is stuck in the wheel of perseverance rover

NASA’s Perseverance spacecraft involuntarily adopted a travel companion, shaped like a stable stone On one of its six wheels made of aluminum.

that picture Captured by the Front Perseverance Left Hazard Avoidance Camera, or Hazcam for short, shows the interloper sitting on the inside the wheel. The rover must have kicked the rock while exploring Jezero CResident, where is it she was working since landing On Mars in February 2021.

Image Taken on February 25, 2022, but a Similar picture Pictures taken five days later showed that the rock was still firmly in place. The stone now seems stubborn A fixture in the $2.2 billion rover. It is not known when the rock managed to jump On the ship, but espionage by C | Press reporter Amanda Koser notes that he’s been there since at least February 6, 2021.

The rock appears to be a cosmetic nuisance And nothing is currently hindering the rover’s progress. At least we hope. I’ve reached out to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to make sure the rock is not currently a problem, and will update this article. Should I hear a response.

The width of that persistence is 20.7 inches (52.2 cmWheels able to withstand this unexpected intrusion is no big surprise. The rover is equipped with upgrade wheels To prevent wear or tear Seen on NASA’s Curiosity rover. Each aluminum wheel is equipped with 48 cleats that improve traction and curved titanium ribs that provide bouncy support. The upgraded wheels are also narrowerAnd the With a thicker, stronger thread, as Morten Boe Madsen, Mars 2020 Project Scientist and astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute, Tell Gizmodo in 2020.

persevere offline backing down towards Octavia E. Butler’s landing site, which is Leadership Longer distances More than at any other time during the mission. Mission planners hope to collect more surface samples before the rover reaches the Jezero Delta, where it will use its Mastcam-Z and SuperCam instruments to study its structure and mineralogy.

This is not Percy’s first pebble problem: in january, debris I got into the rover mechanism after extracting a sample of rocks. Fortunately, the rover managed it eviction those gravel, which was clogging its spool system.