Mars is littered with over 15,000 pounds of human trash – Fast Company

The craft discards pieces of the module as it descends, and these pieces can land in different locations on the planets surfacethere may be a lower heat shield in one place and a parachute in another. When this debris crashes to the ground, it can break into smaller pieces, as happened during the Perseverance rover landing in 2021. These small pieces can then get blown around because of Martian winds.

A lot of small, windblown trash has been found over the yearslike the netting material found recently. Earlier in the year, on June 13, Perseverance rover spotted a large, shiny thermal blanket wedged in some rocks 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) from where the rover landed. Both Curiosity in 2012andOpportunity in 2005also came across debris from their landing vehicles.

Thenine inactive spacecraft on the surface of Marsmake up the next type of debris. These craft are the Mars 3 lander, Mars 6 lander, Viking 1 lander, Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner rover, theformerly lost Beagle 2 lander, the Phoenix lander, the Spirit rover and the most recently deceased spacecraft, the Opportunity rover. Mostly intact, these might be better considered historical relics than trash.

Wear and tear take their toll on everything on the Martian surface. Some parts ofCuriositys aluminum wheels have broken offand are presumably scattered along the rovers track. Some of the litter is purposeful, with Perseverancehaving dropped a drill bit onto the surfacein July 2021, allowing it toswap in a new, pristine bitso that it could keep collecting samples.

Crashed spacecraft and their pieces are another significant source of trash. At least two spacecraft have crashed, and an additional four have lost contact before or just after landing. Safely descending to the planets surface is the hardest part of any Mars landing missionand it doesnt always end well.

When you add up the mass of all spacecraft that have ever been sent to Mars, you get about 22,000 pounds (9,979 kilograms). Subtract the weight of the currently operational craft on the surface6,306 pounds (2,860 kilograms)and you are left with 15,694 pounds (7,119 kilograms) of human debris on Mars.

Today, the main concern scientists have about trash on Mars is the risk it poses to current and future missions. The Perseverance teams are documenting all debris they find and checking to see if any of it could contaminate the samples the rover is collecting. NASA engineers have also considered whether Perseverance could get tangled in debris from the landing but haveconcluded the risk is low.

The real reason debris on Mars is important is because of its place in history. The spacecraft and their pieces are the early milestones for human planetary exploration.

Cagri Kilic is a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at West Virginia University.

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Mars is littered with over 15,000 pounds of human trash - Fast Company