Perseverance loses the stone that has been on a wheel for more than a year

21 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars has finally lost the stone that was stuck inside one of its wheels, and that was detected in images over a year ago.

The stone was captured on February 25, 2022 with the rover’s left front HazCam, one of the six carried by Perseverance to detect hazards in the path of the vehicle, among other tasks.

After touring the Jezero crater for 427 sols or days on Mars, Dr. Gwénaël Caravaca, who works with the rover’s SuperCam instrument, discovered this past April 20 in the last Hazcam image that the stone was no longer in place.

“He spent 427 sols with us (more than an Earth year!), and traveled about 10 km from sol 341”, tweeted Caravaca. “Goodbye rock friend, we will miss you!”

And the image that gave us the sad news: https://t.co/jTz6SQefvB pic.twitter.com/s0ZYC797ko

— Dr. Gwénaël Caravaca ?? ? (@GCC_Mars) April 20, 2023

NASA said at the time that the rock was not causing any damage, and that the stones can get into the wheels when the rover traverses slopes. They can also get in there when the rover is moving over loose ground and when the weight of the rover breaks rocks to pieces, reports Universe Today.