A NASA helicopter took photos of wreckage from a rover that landed on Mars. It's yet another example of how humans are polluting other worlds.

The landing gear that helped the Perseverance rover get to the red planet was captured by the Ingenuity helicopter.

The Ingenuity chopper, the first aircraft to take flight on another world, located and captured photos of the wreck of a dust-covered, orange-and-white parachute and a backshell. The pictures were taken on the one-year anniversary of Ingenuity's first mission to the Red Planet.

Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18, 2021, after a seven-month journey that was tasked with searching for signs of ancient life.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The landing gear held up well according to officials at NASA. The backshell was a heat shield to the SUV-sized Perseverance during its lengthy trek from Earth. The rover deployed a parachute to slow it down and land at Jezero Crater, which was once an ancient river delta.

The protective coating and suspension lines connecting it to the parachute appear to be intact, even though the backshell ended up in pieces after a fiery plunge. The canopy shows no signs of damage from the supersonic airflow during inflation, but just one-third of the 70 foot wide chute is visible in Ingenuity's images.

Researchers hope studying the components that allowed for a safe landing can help them plan for future space missions.

It will be amazing if they reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or if they provide a single dataset of engineering information that we can use for Mars Sample Return planning. If not, the pictures are still amazing.

The dilemma with high-flying trash

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space agencies are concerned about space junk, which includes remnants of satellites, burned-up boosters, screwdrivers, parachutes, and other leftovers from human space exploration. As more satellites are launched into space, the Earth's orbit is getting more crowded. The problem gets worse each year, as old satellites and other objects collide, generating thousands of bits of debris. Satellite congestion raises the risk of collision and threatens future space exploration.

A report from the NASA Office of the Inspector General concluded in January of last year that protecting the expanding space environment is critical.

Ram Jakhu, an associate professor and acting director of McGill University, fears that in 20 years it will be dangerous to go to space because of pollution.

We have polluted the Earth left, right and center. We will be doing the same thing in space. There needs to be a wake-up call if things are going to be serious.