The object looks like a flying saucer that crashed on Mars.
And it really is.
But it does not belong to aliens.
Instead, the wreckage is the work of NASA, a component called the rear shell, which was released during the landing of the rover Perseverance on the surface of the Red Planet in February 2021.
“There’s definitely a sci-fi element in it,” Ian Clark, an engineer who worked on Perseverance’s parachute system, told photos released Wednesday. “It radiates beyond, doesn’t it?”
During its 26th flight last week, Ingenuity took 10 pictures in 159 seconds in the air, covering 1,181 feet. They show the back shell or top half of the landing capsule that defended Perseverance and ingenuity as they dived through the Martian atmosphere. A 70-foot-wide parachute is still attached, which slowed the descent of vehicles.
The parachute and rear shell separated from the rover at a height of 1.3 miles. A missile system called the Skycrane brought Perseverance the rest of the way to the surface as the rear shell and parachute landed more than a mile northwest.
The rear shell, nearly 15 feet in diameter, struck the ground at about 78 miles per hour, shattering partially. Otherwise, everything looks in good condition – there are no obvious signs of charring. The parachute appears to be intact, as do the suspension lines connecting the parachute to the rear shell. But engineers have just begun to examine the new images in detail.
“They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but it’s also worth an infinite amount of engineering understanding,” Mr Clark said.
Studying the remnants of the hind shell may be useful for NASA’s next big adventure – returning rocks and soil from Mars to Earth for more detailed study. This mission, called Mars Sample Return, will have to put two landing gear on the surface – a rover to collect samples from rocks drilled by Perseverance, and a small rocket to launch samples into orbit for another spacecraft to take to return back to Earth.
“We use all our best models, all our best analysis tools,” Mr Clark said. The images help to test how well the models and analyzes have worked, adding confidence to the models in the future.
Kenneth Farley, a mission project scientist, was fascinated not only by the “really spectacular” images of the hardware, but also by what the hardware happened to land on.
“It’s remarkable that these debris curled right at the junction between the two rock formations on the crater floor,” Dr. Farley said in an email. The two formations, called Seitah and Maaz, consist of volcanic rocks. But they are very different in composition. Seitah is rich in olivine, which has precipitated from dense magma, perhaps a lake of lava. Maaz, which is at the top and therefore probably younger, has a composition similar to most basalt lava flows – full of minerals known as pyroxene and plagioclase, but with little or no olivine.
The two formations meet on a line of rocks that runs from the rear shell to an area right next to the parachute. “We want to know how these rocks can be connected to each other,” said Dr. Farley.
The mission’s scientists were so intrigued by the geology that Ingenuity made another trip over the Seitah-Maaz dividing line on Sunday. These photos will be sent back to Earth on Thursday.
Perseverance was also busy during his drives. On April 2, he took a series of photos of the small Martian moon Phobos passing in front of the sun, partially eclipsed by a potato-like object. Detailed measurements of Phobos’ orbit hint at the internal structure of Mars.
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