The third-generation rover Curiosity made a soft landing on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012, that is, more than two years ago. Let's see how much these two years of being on another uninhabited planet have changed him.
Of course, Mars, with its rocky surface, treacherous dunes and sandy storms, patted the rover a bit, but in fact everything is not so bad. NASA published photos taken by the cameras of the rover at different times of the expedition. Since the day on Mars lasts a little longer than on Earth (24 hours, 39 minutes, 35.24409 seconds), they are called “salts”, and not days. At the moment, 725 expeditions are taking place with the participation of the Curiosity rover. Let's take a look at how the rover looked at different times of its journey on the Red Planet.
The most serious load fell, of course, on the wheels of Curiosity. They had to see a lot of sharp fragments of rocks, stones and sand, so the surface is pretty worn out.
It looked like the wheels in the third sol of the expedition.
And this is how they looked at 689 sol. As can be seen from this photo, in some places the aluminum wheels were even pierced through with stones.
More images of the wheels of the rover. Sol 60.
Sol 711. You can see quite large holes in aluminum.
But what does the red Martian dust do to the surface of the rover? The first photo was taken in sol 36.
The same place, but salt is already going 660.
The coin of 1909 of release which is built in in the body of Kuriositi in order to calibrate on it video and cameras of a mars rover. Sol 34.
Sol 591.
Practically all the mechanisms and key elements of the rover are now covered with a thick layer of Martian dust. Sol 32.
Sol 674.
Sadly, the closest car wash to Curiosity is so far away. He would not hurt to properly wash. We remind you that the distance between Earth and Mars varies from 55.76 million kilometers, when Mars is closest to our planet, to 401 million kilometers, when the Sun is located directly between the Earth and the Red Planet.
Anyway, the Curiosity rover regularly continues to carry out its service and slowly but surely moves across the surface of Mars, simultaneously collecting soil samples and sending such valuable data to Earth. We wish good luck to all those people in NASA who watch the state of Curiosity day and night and keep it in such good shape.
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