NASA has managed to identify the bizarre, spaghetti-shaped formation photographed by the Mars rover Perseverance in July.
Mi is we wrote that on July 12, the 495th day of its Mars mission, Perseverance photographed a rather strange shape on the surface of the red planet. When we saw the photo, we mostly thought of a spaghetti, a worm, maybe a seaweed, but as it turned out, there was nothing like that, the rover only found a tangled piece of the take-off and landing unit.
The spaghetti-like formation is nothing more than Dacron mesh, a resin-soaked synthetic fiber often used in high-performance sails, but in Perseverance’s case it must have been part of the heat shield – writes the Independent according to a NASA blog post. “This particular piece of mesh appears to be in rather poor condition, suggesting that it has been subjected to significant force.” noted NASA.
This is not the first time that a NASA structure has encountered debris left over from a landing during its journey. In April, the Ingenuity mini-helicopter was photographed with the parachute discarded during landing, as well as the rear cover protecting the structures.
The Perseverance rover and its faithful companion, Ingenuity, set off from Earth in July 2020 and landed on the surface of Mars more than a year ago, in February 2021.
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