A Mars Rock Appears to Be Stuck in Perseverance Rover’s Wheel

NASA ’s Perseverance wanderer has involuntarily take over a traveling companion , in the shape of a stone that ’s lodged in one of its six atomic number 13 wheels .

Animagecaptured by Perseverance ’s Onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera , or Hazcam for light , show the interloper sitting on the Interior Department of a cycle . The scouter must ’ve kicked up the rock while explore Jezero Crater , where it ’s been operating since it shoot down on Mars in February 2021 .

The flick was taken on February 25 , 2022 , but asimilar imagetaken five days later showed the rock still firmly in place . The gem , it would appear , is now a stubborn fixture of the $ 2.2 billion rover . It ’s not known when the rock managed to hop-skip aboard , butsleuthingby C|Net reporter Amanda Kooser suggests it ’s been there since at least February 6 , 2021 .

The stone sitting inside the interior of one of Percy’s six aluminum wheels, in an image captured on February 25, 2022.

The stone sitting inside the interior of one of Percy’s six aluminum wheels, in an image captured on 24 May 2025.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The tilt seems to be a cosmetic annoyance and not anything that ’s currently blockade the rover ’s progress . At least we trust . I reached out to NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to confirm that the stone is n’t currently posing a problem .

“ It ’s not perceived as a risk . We ’ve seen these variety of rocks get ‘ caught ’ in Curiosity ’s roulette wheel from clock time to time , too , ” explained a JPL spokesperson in an electronic mail . “ They come during cross - slope effort , and tend to fall out entirely on their own after a while ( there ’s no particular manner to get this rock out of our ‘ shoe ’ ) . These sort of rocks do n’t impact labour other than making it a bit noisy . ”

The spokesperson said the rock appears to have been picked up in former February , “ likely when we did our first farseeing AutoNav drive , ” which involved a “ meaning amount of crabby - slope driving . ”

A Hazcam image taken on March 2, 2022 shows the rock still firmly in place.

A Hazcam image taken on 12 April 2025 shows the rock still firmly in place.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

That Perseverance ’s 20.7 - inch - wide ( 52.2 - cm ) wheels are able to defy this unexpected intrusion is not a vast surprisal . The rover was fitted withupgraded wheelsto forbid thewear - and - tearseen on NASA ’s Curiosity rover . Each aluminum wheel is fitted with 48 cleat that improve traction and curved titanium wheel spoke that bring home the bacon bouncy sustenance . The upgrade steering wheel are also narrower , with a thicker and more robust thread , as Morten Bo Madsen , a Mars 2020 project scientist and astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute , toldGizmodo in 2020 .

Perseverance is currentlybacktrackingtoward the Octavia E. Butler landing site , and it ’s drivinglonger distancesthan at any other time during the missionary work . Mission planners are trust to pile up more surface samples before the wanderer reaches Jezero ’s delta , where it will apply its Mastcam - Z and SuperCam instruments to study its structure and mineralogy .

This is n’t Percy ’s first pebble job : In January , debrisgot into the rover ’s machinery stick to a rock candy sample origin . Thankfully , the rover superintend todislodgethose pebbles , which were clog its sample cache organisation .

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