NASA ’s doggedness is explore the famous delta of Jezero Crater butmany imagesthat have come out of the last few weeks are not of pristine geologic structures but of the rubbish that the Entry , Descent , and Landing hardware ( EDL ) left behind when delivering the rover to Mars . Apeculiar ball of string(or spaghetti ) spot by Perseverence a couple of weeks ago in Hogwallow Flats is among them , and stargazer now think they know what it is .
The string is a patch of the Dacron web textile , which was used in the thermal blankets of the EDL . A few weeks previously , Perseverance fleck some of it seem like strangeshed serpent peel . The knotted textile is much more degraded .
“ The hardware squad suspect that this is another piece of Dacron veiling , establish on the observed 2x2 mm2 grid mesh pattern . They noted that this special slice of veiling appear to have undergone meaning unraveling / shredding , suggest that it was subjected to strong force , ” Justin Maki , Imaging Scientist and Mastcam - Z Deputy Principal Investigator at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , pen in ablog post .
Finding junk from the EDL degree is not strange for rovers but the amount Perseverance has get along across and how far away they are seems a bit unexpected . The EDL was purposely crash - landed a yoke of kilometers ( just over a geographical mile ) away from the skill investigation site but the bird of passage continues to tell apart the remains of the collision between the skycrane and the Martian earth .
The team believes it ’s possible some of these fragments were throw up in the air by the crash , but most of them seem to have been carried about by the wind instrument over the row of the twelvemonth .
“ Hogwallow Flats looks like a natural assembling point for windblown EDL debris . perseveration team member are reviewing images of the debris , checking to see if the material may pose as a potential pollution source for the sample tube from this area , " Maki explained .
" Although there are no quick concerns distinguish by the teams at this time , the teams are document the EDL debris materials as they are identified . ”
The team will continue to study this debris both to ensure they do n’t pretend the commission , but also to improve next delegation to this and other worlds .
