NASA's Perseverance rover found a tangled mess of string on Mars, which looked like a fishing line left behind by a frustrated fisherman. There has to be water where there is fishing.
This tiny piece of trash is probably something that was left over from Perseverance's descent stage and backshell, which were used to bring the rover to the surface of Mars.
The image below shows how small the string is compared to the rover's wheel and arm.
A red circle highlights the string on 12 July (Sol 495). (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The arm is touching a rock that the drill probably just took a sample from. For studying the past habitability of Mars and for choosing the most scientifically valuable sample to cache for future return to Earth, the turret carries scientific cameras, mineral and chemical analyzers and other equipment.
The string may have been blown close to the rover. The string has moved on and is missing from the scene.
Near the same spot as the above photo on 16 July (Sol 499). (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The Ingenuity helicopter took pictures of the smashed backshell after Perseverance found several objects left over from the landing.
Are you worried about the trash left by the rover? Stuart told us not to be. In a hundred years or so, Martians will collect all this stuff and either put it on display in museums or make it into historical jewelry, like we do with fossils, amber, and meteorites.
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
Perseverance is currently looking for a good landing site for a sample return mission and there is more information in a recent article on UT.
This article was published in the past. The original article is worth a read.
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