ROVER WHEELS: Monitoring changes over time, NOTE: Read back through the thread to avoid repeating misconceptions Options

[DeanM]

[MOD NOTE: This thread follows on a post by Ed Truthan containing a MAHLI mosaic of MSL wheels taken on sol 275.]

Ed: zooming in on that marvellous underbelly MAHLI montage, there appears to be further (and previously noted) deformation of the wheel surfaces.

Damage is most evident in the view of the front-left wheel inner surface.

Such wear has previously been discussed and concerns allayed.

Nevertheless, the front left wheel surface *appears* to have been punctured.



We've only done 700 meters, and have 7000 more to get to Mt Sharp.....

Given that more odometry has now accumulated, is any (re-)new(ed) concern valid?

DeanM

[elakdawalla]

Here's a look at the left-middle wheel over time, which is the one I'm most concerned about. Although there have been changes between sol 708 and 962, they're only incremental -- I'm actually pretty pleased with how they look after the Pahrump campaign and a whole lot of driving besides. There are no broken grousers. The grousers to watch closely are the ones between fields 11 and 12 and 13 -- those areas have a lot of tears running a substantial width of the wheel, leaving the grousers with little support except at their ends. So those are the ones that will probably break first, eventually. Hopefully continued careful driving will prevent that from happening for a while.