this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2024
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Man that wheel is so much thinner than I was expecting. I was surprised it was broken at all until I noticed how thin the material is. That looks like it's less than a quarter of an inch of what appears to be rigid material for something about the size of a medium-ish car.
It was getting damaged pretty much as soon as they started using it. It's kinda weird they didn't catch something like that in testing on earth? Were the rocks on Mars just that more jagged?
But also I think the wheels are aluminum as well, so very soft metal.
It's lasted this long. I think they made the right decisions. No matter what it is, it's going to be damaged. The goal is to make it still operate despite the damage for as long as possible. The goal isn't to make it last forever, or to never be damaged. The more massive the wheels are the less mass everything else can be, so it's a big trade-off.
It has travelled 32.39 km (20.13 mi) on Mars as of 19 September 2024