Curiosity: Wheel Damage

[majicbar]

http://www.space.com/26472-mars-rove...40709_27516756

The Curiosity rover has developed damage to it's wheel(s) over the year it has been on Mars. The rover is apparently too heavy for the Martian terrain, rocks a bit too sharp, wheel not strong enough. It looks like a tin can being ripped apart. This could be a very bad development.

[Edward]

Yes very bad indeed. Since we have been such great pic's out of mars lately. It's a shame that this could spell trouble for the rover,


Edward

[CasperParks]

Ouch on those wheels. At least the cameras are still holding up.

[Dragonfire]

Out of all the great things the rover can do, they forgot to equip it with the ability to change a tire... oh the humanity...

[majicbar]

Out of all the great things the rover can do, they forgot to equip it with the ability to change a tire... oh the humanity...

Of all the issues faced by the Curiosity Rover engineering the wheels should have been one of the easiest, it is all a knowable physics and physical properties. Clearly the wheels are a critical fail-point and should have had testable prototypes that proved up their ability to do the job. For just a bit more in weight each wheel could have had a much stronger design to prevent such damage. I hope that some kind of review takes place and someone has to answer for this screw-up.

[majicbar]

Of all the issues faced by the Curiosity Rover engineering the wheels should have been one of the easiest, it is all a knowable physics and physical properties. Clearly the wheels are a critical fail-point and should have had testable prototypes that proved up their ability to do the job. For just a bit more in weight each wheel could have had a much stronger design to prevent such damage. I hope that some kind of review takes place and someone has to answer for this screw-up.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/spotlight/wheels01.html

http://space.stackexchange.com/quest...pressure-tires

https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19930008925

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stor...-problems.html

For anyone interested on more about this incident.