An analysis has shown that about 7 tons of garbage may exist on the surface of Mars, which is called the ‘red planet’.
On the 20th (local time), Kagri Kilik, a lunar and Mars rover researcher at the University of West Virginia, wrote in The Conversation, an online scientific journal, ‘About 7 tons of garbage on Mars due to 50 years of robotic exploration. You have contributed an article titled ‘to reach
This is about 10 tons of mass of all spacecraft launched to Mars so far, minus about 3 tons of currently operating spacecraft and rovers.
According to the United Nations Office for Space (UN OOSA), mankind has continuously attempted Mars exploration for the past 50 years, and so far, after 14 attempts, 18 artifacts have successfully reached the surface of Mars.
The first successful landing on Mars was the Mars 2 spacecraft, which the Soviet Union crash-landed on Mars in 1971. However, it is believed that Mars 2 was swept away by a Martian storm during landing and crashed.
Since then, numerous spacecraft have been sent to Mars by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Europe, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Russian and Indian Space Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of China.
However, it turns out that these spacecraft, whether successful or not, are producing a lot of Martian debris in common.
Garbage being found on the surface of Mars is mainly discarded parts, spacecraft that crashed during landing, and spacecraft fragments that have fallen from impact.
In particular, when entering and landing in the Martian atmosphere, the impact generates numerous fragments, which are blown away by the strong winds blowing on Mars away from the landing site.
The official Twitter account of the NASA mobile rover ‘Persevere Rover’ released a photo of a shiny foil-like object sandwiched between rocks on the surface of Mars in June.
The object was discovered about 2 km from the landing site and investigations have revealed it to be a piece of the rover’s thermal protection blanket used when it landed on Mars.
In addition, Martian debris is often found by rovers.
On the other hand, debris left on Mars is also considered important because it serves as a milestone for future planetary exploration.
For this reason, scientists are paying attention to the impact of debris on Mars on exploration activities.
NASA is documenting any debris it finds on the Martian surface, and has considered the potential for problems such as contaminating Mars samples collected by the rover or crashing into a device failure, but has concluded that the probability is low.
(Photo=’Nasa Perseverance Rover’ Twitter, NASA/JPL-Caltech)