Perseverance: Spotted strange object on Mars

The Perseverance scans its surface planet mars having an entire scientific analysis platform. The researchers were certainly excited when they saw on the rover’s cameras an object they had never seen before on the Red Planet. A tangled tangle of fibers. Their excitement was quickly replaced by disappointment, as it was most likely remnants of the lander’s parachute that brought the rover to the surface, blown by the wind and found in Perseverance’s path.

Martian tumbleweed; No. More “stuff” from the Perseverance rover’s descent stage or backshell that has been blown close to the rover by the whispering martian wind. If you’re worried about this being litter, don’t be… pic.twitter.com/VwgO0z0oFO

— Stuart Atkinson (@mars_stu) July 13, 2022

A few days later, this piece disappeared from the camera’s field of view, as the winds must have forced it to continue its journey. But the incident raises questions about missions to other planetary bodies, since this is not the only incident of pollution. Perseverance has littered the Martian environment with its parachute and pieces of the lander’s protective shield.

My team has spotted something unexpected: It’s a piece of a thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day back in 2021. pic.twitter.com/O4rIaEABLu

— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022

But what will happen if the same tactics continue? Yes, on the one hand we are talking about a negligible amount on the surface of an entire planet. But many scientists are worried that we will unwittingly transport something off Earth, which will contaminate the pristine landscape and we may come to wrong conclusions or even worse contaminate some form of life.

NASA engineers appear reassuring as they consider that in a few hundred years there will be people living on the surface of Mars and collecting all these pieces to display in museums, as early as the first years of exploration of the Red Planet.

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