NASA's Perseverance has a traveling companion, a pet rock, that got stuck in one of its wheels.
The Mars stone won't affect the rover's science mission and is only a small annoyance.
The pet rock was accidentally picked up by Perseverance's front- left wheel.
The rock has a camera that takes pictures of the Hazard Avoidance Camera.
The rock and Perseverance are still tumbling after 126 days. The day on Mars is 37 minutes longer than the day on Earth.
Over a quarter of the rover's mission has been spent hitchhiking with the rock. A section of the Jezero crater that researchers believe is made from ancient lava flows was explored by the rover when it first made a home for itself in Perseverance's wheel.
There is a rock near the remnant.
The rover has traveled through the site of the first landing on Mars, as well as past the remains of an ancient river.
One of the Jezero crater's steep slopes is where the rover will soon be going to climb.
Perseverance Rover spotted from space.
When the pet rock falls out of the rover's wheel, it will be surrounded by rocks that are very different from it.
One mission scientist joked in a recent meeting that they might confuse a future Mars geologist.
Several small rocks have fallen out of Perseverance's front-right wheel in a few days or weeks.
According to the statement, the newest passenger is a record-breaker.
There are other Mars rovers that pick up pets.
In December 2004, operators of NASA's Spirit rover had to perform a sharp turn maneuver to remove a potato-sized rock from its right-rear wheel because scientists feared it would cause significant damage.
Picking up rocks in other parts of the rover has been a bigger problem for Perseverance.
A bunch of pebbles fell into the machinery of the rover, shutting it down for a week. Scientists at the mission worked out a way to remove the pebbles after they had to remove the drilling arm.
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The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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