Mars Is Hard: NASA’s Rovers Have Had a Rough Go Lately

NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers person been roaming Mars for years, exploring antithetic parts of the Red Planet hundreds of miles apart. Over the past fewer months, however, some robots person been struggling to implicit a important portion of their respective missions.

As Perseverance sets connected its 5th technological campaign, the rover is having occupation reaching the rim of an past crater, often taking doubly arsenic agelong to implicit a thrust on the Martian terrain. As for Curiosity, it’s besides encountering hurdles; the rover was precocious forced to crook distant from exploring a dried-up transmission aft its wheels got stuck connected a rock.

For astir 3 months, the Perseverance rover has been climbing the rim of Jezero Crater to analyse whether beingness ever existed connected Mars. This is the six-wheeled robot’s toughest terrain yet, and it’s proving to beryllium much challenging than the mission’s squad had anticipated.

Percy has been connected Mars for astir 4 years, and the rover began its 5th technological run successful precocious August. This is the main lawsuit for Perseverance’s travel connected Mars, and it requires exploring Jezero Crater’s occidental rim, which amusement signs of past hydrothermal activity. To bash this, Perseverance has to flooded slopes of up to 23 degrees and ascent astir 1,000 feet (300 meters) to the rim of Jezero, which contained a monolithic water billions of years ago. As the rover precocious revealed, however, it hasn’t been easy.

“My travel to the rim of Jezero Crater has been a challenging one,” NASA’s Perseverance rover wrote connected X. “I’m dealing with immoderate steep and slippery terrain. But acknowledgment to my squad and autonomous navigation system, I’m avoiding immoderate large hazards arsenic I dilatory marque my mode up.”

My travel to the rim of Jezero Crater has been a challenging one.

As you tin spot successful this representation from my rear Hazcam, I’m dealing with immoderate steep and slippery terrain. But acknowledgment to my squad and autonomous navigation system, I'm avoiding immoderate large hazards arsenic I dilatory marque my mode up. pic.twitter.com/zlZRqeTPWM

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) October 17, 2024

The trek up to the crater’s rim is much slippery than initially thought, which has slowed down Perseverance’s journey. The terrain of the rim crater turned retired to beryllium loosely packed particulate and soil with bladed and brittle crust, causing the rover to screen fractional the region it would usually screen connected a regular drive, NASA Spaceflight reported. There was 1 time erstwhile Perseverance completed astir 20% of its planned route.

“Mars rovers person driven implicit steeper terrain, and they’ve driven implicit much slippery terrain, but this is the archetypal clip 1 had to grip both—and connected this scale,” Camden Miller, the rover’s way planner astatine NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) successful California, told NASA Spaceflight. “For each 2 steps guardant Perseverance takes, we were taking astatine slightest 1 measurement back.”

The squad down the ngo has been coming up with antithetic ways to effort to marque Perseverance’s trek easier connected its wheels, including having the rover thrust up the rim backwards arsenic its suspension strategy maintains amended traction erstwhile it’s going that way. Right now, the squad decided connected having the rover thrust toward the bluish borderline of the crater rim due to the fact that that portion has larger rocks person to the surface, which would trim slippage, NASA Spaceflight reported.

Hundreds of miles away, NASA’s Curiosity rover, Percy’s predecessor, is besides having occupation driving on a bumpy roadworthy connected Mars. This week, NASA revealed that Curiosity lone made it astir halfway to its intended destination. Curiosity’s thrust was terminated aboriginal aft it exceeded 1 of its suspension limits, and the rover ended up with 1 instrumentality successful a trough and different perched connected a rock.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this representation of its mediate and right-rear wheels. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity is presently successful Gediz Vallis, a transmission adjacent the basal of Mount Sharp that whitethorn person contained liquid h2o successful the past. With the rover stuck successful an awkward position, the squad pivoted to a distant sensing plan, gathering immoderate imaginable observations of Gediz Vallis portion figuring retired a mode for Curiosity to crook westbound toward its exit from the channel. The awkward presumption besides meant the squad wasn’t consenting to widen the rover’s arm, which stayed secured by its side.

The Gediz Vallis transmission is carved into the underlying bedrock, and is filled with boulders and different debris. The squad down the ngo is looking for clues arsenic to however the transmission formed, whether it was carved by an past river, wind, oregon adust avalanches. Learning astir Gediz Vallis not lone provides a glimpse of Mars’ past history, it besides suggests that h2o connected Mars whitethorn person travel and gone successful phases, arsenic opposed to gradually disappearing arsenic the satellite became much dry.

“When I joined the ngo backmost successful 2020, I would occasionally look astatine Gediz Vallis connected our HiRISE maps and ideate what the presumption would beryllium similar betwixt those tall, steep transmission walls,” Conor Hayes, postgraduate pupil astatine York University, wrote successful a blog update. “So it seems astir unbelievable that we volition soon beryllium leaving Gediz Vallis down america arsenic we proceed our trek up Mount Sharp.”

Mars tin beryllium an unforgiving situation for a mates of car-sized robots conscionable trying to bash their job.