Video narration
How does a wheel survive a planet covered in sharp rocks? A bicycle tire carries weight and grips uneven ground with air and rubber. Mars rovers need both jobs without either. Curiosity and Perseverance use six aluminum wheels—not rigid blocks, but structures that flex and carry loads. Rocker-bogie suspension lets wheels follow uneven ground, spreading contact and shocks. Then Curiosity provided the hard lesson. Its wheels developed holes and tears after contact with sharp rocks. That damage did not end the mission; it revealed what the next design needed. Perseverance got a tougher wheel skin and denser raised ridges, called grousers, to bite into loose ground: 48 curved grousers instead of Curiosity’s 19 zigzag ones. The wheels are not indestructible; they are designed to keep working after localized damage. The weakness is the strategy: flex, tolerate damage, keep moving. So how does a wheel survive Mars? Flexible aluminum, deep grousers, and suspension that shares shocks—not a rubber tire.