According to a study published in The Conversion, humans have left behind a significant amount of debris on the surface of Mars during 50 years of exploration. Nations have sent 18 man-made objects to Mars in 14 different missions, many of which are still ongoing, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
According to a study by a postdoctoral researcher, NASA verified in August 2022 that the Mars Rover Perseverance discovered debris thrown during the landing. There are three main sources of debris on Mars: discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft, and crashed spacecraft. Many small pieces of wind-blown debris have been discovered over the years, including the recently discovered mesh material. The large shimmering thermal blanket was discovered by the Perseverance rover on June 13, 2022, 1.25 miles (2 km) from where it landed.
My team noticed something unexpected: It’s a piece of thermal blanket that they think may have come from my descent stage, the rocket jet pack that set me up on the day of the 2021 landing. Curiosity in 2012 and Opportunity in 2005 also encountered debris from their landers.
The roughly nine inactive spacecraft on the surface of Mars constitute another type of debris. These spacecraft include Mars lander 3, Mars lander 6, Viking lander 1, Viking lander 2 and others. Another major source of debris is debris from destroyed spaceships. At least two spacecraft crashed, while four others lost contact just before or immediately after landing. The most challenging aspect of any Mars landing mission is safely descending to the planet’s surface, and it doesn’t always go smoothly.
The total mass of every spacecraft ever deployed to Mars is around 22,000 pounds (9,979 kg). There is 15,694 pounds (7,119 kg) of human debris on Mars, minus the 6,306 pounds (2,860 kg) of currently functional craft on the surface. Currently, a major concern among scientists is the risk that Mars debris poses to current and future missions.
Perseverance teams are tracking every piece of debris they come across, looking for anything that could contaminate the samples the rover is collecting. NASA engineers also considered the possibility that Perseverance could become entangled in debris upon landing, though they found the risk to be low. The significance of Martian debris comes from its historical context. The spacecraft and its components are the first steps toward human planetary exploration.
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