{"id":63267,"date":"2026-07-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=550a6bf28dce534e4ccb3d5f714d2df0"},"modified":"2026-07-27T19:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T19:49:10","slug":"curiosity-mars-rover-inspects-cracked-wheel-space-photo-of-the-day-for-july-24-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/07\/27\/curiosity-mars-rover-inspects-cracked-wheel-space-photo-of-the-day-for-july-24-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity Mars rover inspects cracked wheel | Space photo of the day for July 27, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2000px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"HcU39BapftWQ9gvHfy9bGd\" name=\"curiosity wheel\" alt=\"a close-up of a metal wheel with deep cracks and caved-in sections as it rests on a reddish-orange rocky surface\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/HcU39BapftWQ9gvHfy9bGd.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"1\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline expandable\"><a href='https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/HcU39BapftWQ9gvHfy9bGd.jpg'  class='expand-button icon-expand-image icon' ><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">A photo of one of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's wheels, taken by the rover using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on July 23, 2026, or Sol 4963 of its mission. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has experienced some serious wear and tear during its nearly 14 years on the Red Planet.<\/p><p>A new photo posted to Curiosity's raw image server offers a close-up of the damage one of the rover's wheels has experienced as it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/mars-rovers\/a-29-pound-mars-rock-held-nasas-curiosity-rover-hostage-for-6-days\"><u>explores the Martian surface<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/NbqaRew0.html\" id=\"NbqaRew0\" title=\"Watch Mars Curiosity rover's wheels roll in 6-year time-lapse\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><h2 id=\"what-is-it\">What is it?<\/h2><p>Curiosity landed in Mars' Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012, touching down while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/curiosity-rover-sky-crane-landing-mars-exploration\" ><u>hanging under a 'sky crane'<\/u><\/a> that lowered it to the planet's surface. Since then, the rover has traveled over 20 miles (32 kilometers) across the rocky Martian soil, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/mars\/nasas-curiosity-rover-finds-building-blocks-of-life-on-mars-scientists-arent-sure-how-they-got-there\" ><u>searching for potential signs of ancient life<\/u><\/a> on the Red Planet.<\/p><p>All of that mileage has taken a toll on the rover, as these new images show. Curiosity weighs over one ton, and the terrain on Mars can be quite rocky and rugged. <\/p><p>NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) periodically use the rover's cameras to check on the wheels, and despite the holes and cracks, the agency <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/blog\/sols-4314-4315-wait-what-was-that-back-there\/\" ><u>said in a 2024 statement<\/u><\/a> that they're \"holding up well despite taking some of the worst abuse from Mars.\"<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1920px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"5iRSoBUewCkMTjNZLzYTQe\" name=\"curiosity wheels\" alt=\"a close-up of a metal wheel with deep cracks and caved-in sections as it rests on a reddish-orange rocky surface\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5iRSoBUewCkMTjNZLzYTQe.png\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"1\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline expandable\"><a href='https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/5iRSoBUewCkMTjNZLzYTQe.png'  class='expand-button icon-expand-image icon' ><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Images of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover's wheels, taken by the rover on July 23, 2026, or Sol 4963 of its mission. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><h2 id=\"why-is-it-amazing\">Why is it amazing?<\/h2><p>We've been exploring Mars for decades now, so it can be easy to take for granted how incredible it is that we get new images beamed from the surface of another planet to Earth daily from NASA's two robotic explorers. <\/p><p>These images of Curiosity's wheels help illustrate the incredible feats of engineering and science it took to place wheeled robots safely on the surface of another planet where they spend years and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/mars\/nasas-perseverance-rover-just-ran-a-marathon-on-mars-could-you-do-the-same\"><u>travel dozens of miles<\/u><\/a> to bring us answers about what other worlds are like.<\/p><p>While they might not be human, Curiosity and Perseverance nonetheless represent humanity's first foray into becoming an interplanetary species. The groundwork laid by the rovers and other Mars orbiters, landers and probes could someday help humanity take its first steps on another planet.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA&#8217;s Curiosity Mars rover has experienced some serious wear and tear during its nearly 14 years on the Red Planet, as seen in new images of its wheels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2893,2796,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mars-rovers","category-missions","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63267"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63502,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63267\/revisions\/63502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}