Fortunately, the rock hasn’t stopped Perseverance ‘s operations on Martian soil.
For the past 4 months, NASA ‘s Perseverance rover on Mars has had an unexpected travel companion: a stone in the left front wheel picked up 8.5 kilometers back.
This rock is not doing any harm to the wheel, but throughout its journey, it has adhered and made periodic appearances in the left Hazcam images.
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This is not the first time a rock has been mounted on a Mars rover mission . About 18 years ago, a “potato-sized” stone found its way into the right rear wheel of the Spirit vehicle and had to be dislodged. On the Curiosity rover , the right front wheel has periodically picked up this class of fellow travelers, explains the mission blog.
While it’s unclear exactly how long these rocks stayed, they tended to chip off after just a few weeks. Thus, Perseverance ‘s current partner is on his way to setting hitchhiking records on Mars .
Perseverance ‘s pet rock is now a long way from its original environment. Once inside the wheel, the rover was examining the floor of Jezero Crater, specifically rocks thought to be formed by lava flows. It then headed north through the rover’s landing site and then west toward the current location in the old crater delta, where sedimentary rocks are now being searched for. (EuropePress)
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This is not the first time a rock has been mounted on a Mars rover mission . About 18 years ago, a “potato-sized” stone found its way into the right rear wheel of the Spirit vehicle aew and had to be dislodged. On the Curiosity rover , the right front wheel has periodically picked up this class of fellow travelers, explains the mission blog.
While it’s unclear exactly how long these rocks stayed, they tended to chip off after just a few weeks. Thus, Perseverance ‘s current partner is on his way to setting hitchhiking records on Mars .
Perseverance ‘s pet rock is now a long way from its original environment. Once inside the wheel, the rover was examining the floor of Jezero Crater, specifically rocks thought to be formed by lava flows. It then headed north through the rover’s landing site and then west toward the current location in the old crater delta, where sedimentary rocks are now being searched for. (EuropePress)