NASA Engineers Added Legs, Wheels On Mars 2020 Rover

According to a recent release of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA engineers have recently added wheels and legs on Mars 2020 Rover. The legs and wheels are installed as mobility suspension. As reported by Xinhua news agency on Sunday, more than a dozen bunny suit-clad engineers integrated the rover’s legs and wheels on June 13 in the cleanroom of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL, marking another milestone in the rover’s building.

A team of engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California installed wheels and legs on the Mars 2020 Rover. The imagery for this accelerated time-lapse was taken on June 13, 2019, from a camera above the Spacecraft Assembly facility’s High Bay 1 cleanroom.

The team is working really hard on the project and also taking every measure to make it work.

According to JPL, adding to the complexity of the engineering team’s integration effort the rocket-bogie suspension system which keeps the rover body balanced, enabling it to rock up and down, depending on different positions of the six wheels. JPL said:

“Measuring 52.5 cms in diameter and machines with traction-providing cleats, or grousers, the current wheels are engineering models that will be substituted with flight models in the coming year.”

Every wheel comes with its own motor. The two front and two rear wheels are also equipped with individual steering motors that will enable the vehicle to turn a full 360 degrees in place.

JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 Rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 2020. It is scheduled to land at Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Right now, the team is working in full-speed and getting the rover ready for the upcoming operation. As of now, there is no further updates have been given by NASA on the project. Unless the scheduled date arrives, we wouldn’t know about the result. Right now all we can do is wait.

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