The Nasa scientists decided that the object is a piece of trash discarded by the robotic craft during its February 2021 touchdown.
The object on Mars was believed to be a thermal blanket from when Perseverance landed on the planet.
Typically, Nasa’s Perseverance rover transmits photographs of desolate, dusty landscapes, reddish sandstorms, and Martian rock samples. So its operators were shocked to see an image on Monday of a silver object resembling a chip bag trapped between two boulders.
The Perseverance Twitter account said, “My team has discovered something unexpected: a fragment of a thermal blanket that may have originated from my descent stage, the rocket-powered jet pack that set me down on landing day in 2021.”
This foil is a component of a thermal blanket, a material used to regulate temperatures. It’s surprising to find this here: my descent stage crashed approximately 2 kilometers away. Did this piece then land here, or was it blown here by the wind?”
The image has rekindled concerns that space travel threatens to contaminate the pristine habitats of Mars and the moon. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty established an obligation under international law to prevent the contamination of outer space, the moon, and other celestial bodies, although others contend that the law is insufficiently specific to guarantee protection.
In the case of the Perseverance litter, however, Prof. Andrew Coates, a space scientist at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, stated: “The good news is that everything is sterilized before it goes to Mars, and the space radiation environment and harsh surface environment help during the nine-month journey to Mars.”
“Because it is so difficult to land on Mars due to its tenuous atmosphere, landers always have associated landing system hardware that also lands on the surface, such as parachutes, backshells, and landing systems – such as the sky crane for Perseverance and Curiosity, airbags, and retro rocket systems for earlier missions,” he added. These aircraft depart the landing location and eventually crash, but the risk of contamination is minimal.
Avoiding contamination is essential for missions such as Perseverance, which is searching for indications of ancient life in the Jezero crater on Mars. Scientists estimate that the area was flooded and home to an ancient river delta more than 3.5 billion years ago. During this wetter period, microorganisms may have lived in Jezero; therefore, the car-sized rover is collecting soil samples to take to Earth so scientists can examine them for indications of ancient life.
