At one point, the team steered Curiosity away from more treacherous terrain in favor of smoother paths to prolong the lifespan of its wheels. Then, in 2017, JPL engineers uploaded new software to Curiosity that uses an algorithm to alter each wheel's speed to reduce pressure from the rocks beneath its grousers, or treads.

A photo recently beamed to Earth by NASA’s trusty Curiosity rover shows significant damage to its middle right wheel, but the vehicle is still able to traverse the red planet’s rocky terrain without too much difficulty.

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars back in 2012 and since then it’s been put to work exploring the surface of the Red Planet. In the process, it’s traversed more than 20 miles of the lunar surface,

Holes and Gashes NASA's Curiosity rover has spent over 4,400 Earth days exploring the desolate surface of Mars. It set its six wheels down on the planet's Gale Crater, the suspected dried-out remains of an ancient lake,

Since landing in 2012, the Curiosity rover has been roaming around Mars trying to discover if the planet could have ever supported microbial life. Now, NASA has shown the damage it has picked up along the way.

Ashley Stroupe, a mission operations engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shared images showing the rover's right-middle wheel having significant wear and tear from its extensive travels. Curiosity has made exciting observations,