SciencePerseverance rover accidentally adopts hitchhiking 'pet rock'

Perseverance rover accidentally adopts hitchhiking ‘pet rock’


An image of Perseverance’s ‘pet rock’ stuck in the rover’s front left wheel taken on May 26 using the rover’s front-left Hazcam. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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Roaming Mars is a lonely existence for NASA’s Perseverance, but the exploratory rover now has a traveling companion: a hitchhiking “pet rock” that got stuck in one of its wheels. Luckily, the Martian stone won’t impact the rover’s science mission and is only a minor inconvenience  — like having a pebble stuck in your shoe. 

Perseverance’s front-left wheel accidentally picked up the pet rock on Feb. 4, or Sol 341 — the 341st Martian day of the Martian year, according to a statement by NASA (opens in new tab). The rock has periodically photobombed images taken by the rover’s front-left Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam). Recent images show that the rock is still tumbling along with Perseverance 126 days (123 sols) after it first hitched a ride. (A sol, or Martian day, is just 37 minutes longer than an Earth day.)



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