The Perseverance Rover has gained some weight. A small rock is along for the ride in one of the wheels. It's not the first time a rover's had a passenger.
It looks like the Perseverance rover has an unwanted passenger, a rock stuck inside one of its wheels. The image of the stone was selected as the “Image of the Week” for Week 54 for the Perseverance mission. The Image of the Week is selected by public input. Perseverance captured this image on February 25th, 2022.captured the image. When the rover is driving, it makes periodic stops to let the Hazard Cameras survey the immediate surroundings.
The rock’s been there for a few days, based on images from March 2nd. It’s difficult to tell from the picture for sure, but it doesn’t appear to be wedged in. Will it fall out during normal operations? The rock doesn’t appear to be causing any damage or hindering the rover’s operations. And it’s not the first time a stone got stuck in a rover’s wheel. MSL Curiosity also had a rocky hitchhiker in one of its wheels.NASA thinks rovers can get rocks stuck in their wheels when traversing slopes. They can also get in there as the rover moves over loose terrain and as the rover’s weight breaks rocks into pieces.
At least one Mars rover ended due to problems with its wheels, but not because a rock got stuck. In 2009, NASA’s Spirit Rover got one of its wheels stuck in soft soil. After months of carefully planned maneuvers and extrication attempts, NASA announced that the rover was stuck. In May 2011, they ended the mission.