NASA Mars Curiosity Rover’s Undeterred Journey, Climbing A Mountain Despite Wheel Damage

The rugged terrain of the Red Planet is taking its toll on the Curiosity rover's six wheels. However, the robotic vehicle was still able to do a mountain climbing mission according to NASA.  The rover has been traveling through the lower parts of Mount Sharp, the five kilometers high mountain on Mars, since September 2014. The ongoing journey has seen the Curiosity collect data that may reveal information about the past potential of Mars to host microbial life, as per mission scientists.

"Cracks and punctures have been gradually accumulating at the pace we anticipated, based on testing we performed at JPL," said Steve Lee from NASA. "Given our longevity projections, I am confident these wheels will get us to the destinations on Mount Sharp that have been in our plans since before landing."

The Curiosity rover landed inside the 154 kilometers wide Gale Crater in Mars in August 2012. Subsequently, evidence was found that the region could have hosted microbial lie in the ancient past. The rover was set off for an eight kilometers long journey in July 2013 that would take it to Mount Sharp in 14 months.

The mission team at NASA handled the holes and punctures in the rover's aluminum wheels by rerouting its course over gentler terrain and by ramping it up after conducting an earth based wheel test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team managing the rover has still not seen any indications of broken grousers, based on the photos of its wheels that are taken at a distance of every 500 meters.

According to NASA officials, the wheels of the Curiosity rover will be able to reach the three key sites that have been identified for the mission. The sites were chosen due to their rich mineral composition, and studying the rock layers can throw light on the past habitability of Mars. Recently, the rover crossed the rocky and rough terrain of the Naukluft Plateau. The Mast Camera (Mastcam) of the rover captured panoramic images from the highest point of the plateau, which were subsequently released by NASA.