Rover Over

READY TO ROLL: Today, the kids finished their Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover LEGO kit. 

They've been working on it for a few days now, carefully chipping away at the pages and pages of instructions ... 

... and keeping track of all the parts.

When it was complete, we took the time to review the nicely produced instruction-plus book. It contained many factoids about MSL scattered throughout its pages, and it had a schematic listing the rover's various parts.

We've been keeping pretty close tabs on Curiosity since I was lucky enough to see it launch in person back in November of 2011. 

Lately, we've been concerned about news that MSL's wheels are showing signs of wear. 

You can see a number of pings, dings and such in this (NASA-JPL) photo of MSL's left front wheel, taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI),

And if you look really closely, down at the bottom, toward the first series of three (by design!) holes, there's an all-the-way-through tear.  (photo: NASA/JPL/MSSS)

                         

More photographic evidence of wheel damage is available on these links:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00490/mhli/0490MH0262000003E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00490/mhli/0490MH0262000001E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00494/mcam/0494ML1964004000E1_DXXX.jpg

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/00411/mhli/0411MH0262001000C0_DXXX.jpg

During pre-launch sessions at Kennedy Space Center, I got to see an MSL wheel up close!

The big black wheel is MSL's. It's not rubber (though you might think that, based on its color). Rather, it's made of. The silver wheel in the center is like those found on Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. And the tiniest one, with little nubs, was like that found on Pathfinder. 

Here's a cool NASA/JPL photo of prototypes of each of those rovers in the "Mars Yard" at JPL - apparently not as hostile an environment as the surface of Mars! 

Reading up on MSL's six aluminum wheels, each is 20 inches in diameter and has its own driven motor spinning it, and there are six-spoke titanium spindles in the center. Each front and rear wheel can be steered independently, and MSL's suspension is a rocker-bogie system (something our LEGO model reproduced nicely, BTW.) 

From what I can glean online, MSL's wheels aren't anywhere near failing at this point, so fingers crossed Curiosity will continue to roam for a good, long time. 

Back in this photo, when the rover's wheels were all shiny and new, you can see holes put into the aluminum on purpose. 
                          
The holes create a pattern in the Martian soil, as seen below.

The patterns are helpful, as the rover can use them as a visual reference when driving. I learned at the NASA Tweetup/MSL launch that the pattern is Morse code for JPL, the abbreviation for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is where Curiosity was designed, built and the mission is managed.

NASA/JPL (cropped from http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery/PIA13385.html

In poking around today, looking for answers as to why MSL's wheels are wearing out, I found a fascinating (well, at least to me, LOL) Reddit thread all about it here: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1wnb8s/why_are_the_wheels_of_nasas_mars_rover_curiosity/

But back to LEGOS! While visiting KSC for the launch, I got to see a super duper big LEGO MSL.

It was about the size of a Smart Car, ha ha.

For some reason, I decided to take a close up of its wheel. Maybe I was worried about its design back then. It looked, a little blocky to me. ;)