NASA reveals the new wavy Martian wheels it thinks can crush the red planet:
NASA has revealed the wheels it's just bolted onto the Perseverance Rover, the new Mars assault robot it plans to send to the red planet in July as part of the Mars 2020 mission.
Wheels matter because NASA's Curiosity rover has had trouble keeping a grip on Mars. As we reported in 2017, Curiosity has been popping unintentional wheelies as its six wheels struggle over rocks and sand. While a software patch delivered the robot a new a traction control algorithm that keeps it grounded and lessens wear on wheels, the vehicle's wheels have holes and cracks thanks to pressure produced when rolling over sharp rocks.
Those holes are a worry because the rover doesn't carry a spare and even if it did, good luck finding someone to fit it!
NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Gets Its Wheels and Air Brakes – NASA's Mars Exploration Program:
Final assembly and testing of NASA's Perseverance rover continues at Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the July launch window approaches. In some of the last steps required prior to stacking the spacecraft components in the configuration they'll be in atop the Atlas V rocket, the rover's wheels and parachute have been installed.
[...] Machined out of a block of flight-grade aluminum and equipped with titanium spokes, each wheel is slightly larger in diameter and narrower than Curiosity's, with skins that are almost a millimeter thicker. They also feature new treads, or grousers: In place of Curiosity's 24 chevron-pattern treads are 48 gently curved ones. Extensive testing in the Mars Yard at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built the rover and manages operations, has shown these treads better withstand the pressure from sharp rocks and grip just as well or better than Curiosity's when driving on sand.
[...] The job of adding Perseverance's parachute to the back shell, where the rover will be stowed on the journey to the Red Planet, took several days and was finished on March 26. Tasked with slowing the heaviest payload in the history of Mars exploration from Mach 1.7 to about 200 mph (320 kph) during the rover's landing on Feb., 18, 2021, the 194 pounds (88 kilograms) of nylon, Technora and Kevlar fibers are packed so tightly into a 20-inch-wide (50-centimeter-wide) aluminum cylinder that it is as dense as oak wood. When deployed at about 7 miles (11 kilometers) above the Martian surface, the chute will take about a half-second to fully inflate its 70.5-foot-wide (21.5-meter-wide) canopy.
The Perseverance rover is a robotic scientist weighing 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms). It will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet. No matter what day Perseverance launches during its July 17-Aug. 5 launch period, it will land on Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.
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Mars-bound spaceship experiencing technical issues: NASA:
Mars 2020, the spaceship carrying NASA's new rover Perseverance to the Red Planet, is experiencing technical difficulties and is running on essential systems only, the agency said Thursday.
"Data indicate the spacecraft had entered a state known as safe mode, likely because a part of the spacecraft was a little colder than expected while Mars 2020 was in Earth's shadow," NASA said.
The spaceship has left Earth's shadow and the temperatures are now normal.
[...] Matt Wallace, the mission's deputy project manager, said that the fact that the spaceship had entered safe mode was not overly concerning.
"That's perfectly fine, the spacecraft is happy there," he said. "The team is working through that telemetry, they're going to look through the rest of the spacecraft health. "So far, everything I've seen looks good, so we'll know more in a little bit."
Related:
Perseverance, Ingenuity begin seven month journey to Mars
Atlas 5 launches Mars 2020 mission
Previously:
Mars 2020 Rover to Include a Mars Helicopter
Mars Helicopter Enters Final Testing
Mars Mission Readies Tiny Chopper for Red Planet Flight
NASA Reveals the New Wavy Martian Wheels it Thinks Can Crush the Red Planet
Three Missions to Mars Happening this Month
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2020, @06:38PM (3 children)
Shitty headline, crush? Headlines have always been some amount of crap, but I really hope this fad of XTREME language fad goes out of style soon. Crush only appears in the register's title, nowhere in the article itself.
Pretty amazing they are able to remotely land a 1 ton vehicle on Mars. Yay nerds!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday April 06 2020, @08:40PM (2 children)
Those wheels look like they belong on some Nip's new riced-out Civic SI or Nissan GT-R rather than an extraterrestrial rover.
While it is cool that we can land shit on Mars, we already know that we can do it. We need to move on to better projects, such as asteroid deflection and destruction.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday April 06 2020, @09:26PM
Asteroid deflection, destruction, and profitable mining. How else are we going to build mega ships in space. Orbital refueling stations. With clean restrooms and fast food heavily salted or sugared.
My biggest question is: can those martian rover wheels get custom rims?
Landing stuff on Mars is short sighted. I hear Jupiter is much bigger. Therefore more area for agriculture.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2020, @10:23PM
At this point I'll settle for the big brains researchign how to edumacate fucktards like you.
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday April 06 2020, @11:13PM
Sigh, because it's black and has a picatinny rail?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @04:20AM (2 children)
It's essentially the same design. They just changed the tread pattern, doubling the ribs for more strength. The fundamentals didn't change.
This is an aluminum wheel running on soil that contains perchlorates and iron oxide. Crack propagation is always a problem in aluminum, and the corrosive environment sure doesn't help.
Some metals can flex indefinitely without suffering metal fatigue, as long as the flexing isn't too extreme. Titanium and spring steel qualify, but aluminum doesn't. Picking the more corrosion-resistant, obviously you'd go with titanium. NASA put titanium wheels on the lunar rovers. Add a coating of titanium nitride if you want more wear resistance.
Of course, it is far from certain that metal is the best choice. Adjust the molecules a bit for temperature differences, and ordinary solid rubber wheels ought to work great. If the adjustment means that the wheels are liquid at typical Earth temperatures, put the liquid in a thin wear-away plastic cover/mold/coating and let it solidify while en-route to Mars.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday April 07 2020, @08:50AM
Temperatures on Mars can reach 70F. The rover could experience higher temps than that on entry. You'd end up with misshapen blobs instead of wheels.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @04:07PM
also think about the weight you need to loft into the 7'434'287 (or such) floor.
what however would be funny, if one could send a "genesis" rim and thru driving around, the tire would form with stuff lying around on mars.
problem would then be that the "tire" grows bigger and bigger ^_^