NASA's Mars rover recently made a surprise discovery on the distant planet, but it isn't quite the evidence of ancient life that scientists are hoping to find there.
It's a piece of garbage.
The object pictured below is believed to be a piece of a thermal blanket. After delivering Perseverance to the martian surface last year, the descent stage was used to perform a crash landing.
The piece of foil was found more than a mile away from the current location.
In a series of messages posted on Perseverance's account this week, the team at JPL suggested that the rover may have been blown to its new location during the landing phase. There is no suggestion that undiscovered martians had anything to do with it.
The team at Perseverance spotted something unexpected. They think it is a piece of a thermal blanket that came from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day in 2021.
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
My descent stage crashed about 2 km away, according to another post. Was this piece blown here by the wind after that?
That shiny bit of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures. It’s a surprise finding this here: My descent stage crashed about 2 km away. Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind? pic.twitter.com/uVx3VdYfi8
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022
There is a picture of the JPL team that wrapped the rover. The message states that they work with sewing machines and other tools to piece together unique materials.
Here’s part of the team at JPL that wrapped me up in thermal blankets. Think of them as spacecraft dressmakers. They work with sewing machines and other tools to piece together these unique materials.
More on that here: https://t.co/CNkUheYFnQ pic.twitter.com/PcMeow3FyO
— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) June 15, 2022
Perseverance spends most of its time looking for evidence of past life on the red planet and also collecting Mars rock samples for return to Earth. It may want to grab that trash as well.
There is a recommended video.
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