Rough Roving: Curiosity's Wheels Show Damage

astroengine writes "In a recent batch of images beamed back to Earth from Mars rover Curiosity's MAHLI camera, obvious signs of wear and tear could be seen in the 'skin' of the robot's wheels. Considering Curiosity is only 281 sols (Mars days) into its mission and roved less than a kilometer after landing, surely this doesn't bode well? Fortunately, there's good news. 'The wear in the wheels is expected,' Matt Heverly, lead rover driver for the MSL mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News. 'We will continue to characterize the wheels both on Mars and in the Marsyard, but we don't expect the wear to impact our ability to get to Mt. Sharp.'"

Glad it's expected.

[sconeu]

Otherwise, it's a hell of a long wait for the AAA. And who's going to to stand there next to the rover with their card?

Re:the words we choose.

[Anonymous Coward]

My tire-skin brings all the rovers to the marsyard
And they're like,
Its worse than yours,
Damn right, much worse than yours
I can teach you,
But I'll eat your sols

Pondering the fate of Slashdot Parodist Unit 201322, K'Breel spake thus: "You. You funny. I like you. Your gelsacs may remain safely attached, in fact, I'd give one of mine for mod points right about now, but the Slashdot powers that be have no use for the Speaker's gelsacs."

Re:Spirit and Opportunity set unrealistic expectat

[skegg]

I mean look at how long Voyager has lasted way the hell out in the cold depths, that's a tough built ship right there.

Dude, relax, it's just science fiction. There was no caretaker, and no one was pulled into the Delta quadrant.