NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, commonly referred to as the Marscopter, has captured breathtaking photos of spacecraft wreckage on Mars. These pictures reveal parts of Perseverance Rover’s parachute and backshell that assisted with landing last year on this planet.
Images show that most of the backshell, parachute and suspension lines made it through to land safely despite an extremely fast, intense descent onto Mars.
Aliens Could Be to Blame for Bizarre Rocks Found on Mars
NASA experts have been left baffled by an odd-shaped rock discovered by Curiosity rover. While some have suggested non-naturalistic explanations for its unusual form–such as Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine–its most likely formation resulted from meteorite impacts and weathering over time.
Curiosity has captured images of several rocks with spike-like, wedge-shaped and plate-like protrusions on them that appear grouped together on the Gale Crater floor – leading some conspiracy theorists to speculate they may be evidence of crashed spacecraft.
Theories may not be completely baseless. Experts estimate that more than 10 human spacecraft have crashed on Mars, with parts from landing modules like heat shields and parachutes often being jettisoned prior to reaching the surface and broken apart by winds on its surface – leaving approximately 15,694 pounds of debris scattered across its surface.
Scientists Continue to Explore
NASA probes continue to uncover the processes responsible for Mars’ transformation into an inhospitable desert planet, giving scientists insight into possible strategies that might terraform it back into an inhabitable habitat.
Last year, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter captured some hauntingly eerie photos that appeared to depict alien spacecraft wreckage amidst a desolate Martian landscape. The Ingenuity helicopter found remains of Perseverance’s supersonic parachute and cone-shaped backshell from whence it descended fierily to Mars.
Images captured from above provide an amazing perspective of the landing components that made Perseverance’s $2.5 billion trip possible, scattered across Jezero Crater in Mars where Perseverance has been exploring since February 18th. Recently, evidence that an ancient river once flowed there has been discovered. Furthermore, oxygen was successfully extracted from Mars’ atmosphere for the first time ever back in April; and finally in September Perseverance successfully collected its first sample rock.
NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Finds Wreckage on Mars
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has completed numerous flights since it arrived on Mars two years ago, each hop providing invaluable insight into how rotorcraft operate on other worlds and helping designers build new ones for future missions.
Ingenuity’s most recent images from their drone demonstrate damage to one of its rotor blades, and are being carefully studied by Ingenuity handlers as an investigation is carried out into what went wrong; any “blade strike,” where something hits against the ground, could spell disaster for them.
Ingenuity safely landed upright in Neretva Vallis, which winds its way into Jezero Crater. Now parked alongside Perseverance rover which spent one year exploring rocks in Jezero Crater before heading down towards valley to investigate an old river delta that once flowed through here. NASA plans on using Perseverance further exploring other parts of Mars – possibly the area where backshell and parachute first touched down on Mars!
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Delivers Samples
Scientists want to use laboratory analysis of Martian rock and soil samples brought back from Mars by Perseverance for far more sophisticated testing than that performed onboard Mars rovers like Curiosity. To do this, Perseverance must collect samples for future retrieval by creating a cache in Jezero Crater – site of an ancient lake and river delta – where Perseverance currently is.
Perseverance’s exploration of Mars crater delta is intriguing due to its preservation of layers of mud that may contain evidence of past life forms, including organic material. That is why Perseverance is exploring this area – a 49km (30 mi)-wide impact depression north of Mars’ equator – as well as testing technologies which could prove useful on future human and robotic missions – such as its small helicopter Ingenuity that has already made multiple flights, providing evidence that powered flight is possible on Mars. Additionally, team has developed ways of producing oxygen from carbon dioxide sources which will enable future astronauts.