NASA hides a coded message in the parachute of the Mars rover
No time right now?
The recordings of the landing of the Mars rover Perseverance are impressive. But one or the other may have wondered what the irregular pattern of the parachute is all about. Reddit users have now solved the puzzle.
The year 2021 is a good one for space fans – Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18, after the Al-Amal probe of the United Arab Emirates had successfully entered the Martian atmosphere. And China’s Tianwen-1 probe is already orbiting the red planet; A rover is also expected to land on the surface of Mars in a few weeks. The missions are primarily intended to provide scientific knowledge and answers – for example, whether there are traces of past life on Mars. Experience has shown that questions are also raised: for example, about the strange, irregular stripe pattern of Perseverance’s drag parachute.
Contents
Perseverance’s drag parachute contains a coded message
The fact that NASA uses striped brake parachutes is nothing new. That was already evident at the splashdown of the Apollo landing capsules. The reason for this is less the appearance than the fact that with patterned parachutes it is easier to see whether they have twisted or only partially opened.
The Apollo 14 command module just before the splashdown in the ocean. The striped braking parachutes are easy to see. (Photo: NASA)
However, that does not explain the irregular line pattern of Perseverance’s brake parachute. What’s behind it? Nasa itself gave the impetus to solve the riddle: an employee said during the live stream about the landing that sometimes it would Leaving messages at workthat others should then find. Numerous enthusiasts did not have to be told twice.
Mars: What the Perseverance rover and its helper-drone Ingenuity will do in the next few months
“Is there some kind of hidden message or secret code in the Perseverance parachute?” Someone asks Reddit. And the solution is not long in coming. If the design of the parachute is based on a binary system – red is 1, white is 0 – and looking at the four “rings” of the parachute separately, the result is a code whose decoded message is “Dare mighty things”. “Dare to do great things” – NASA’s motto The fourth ring is not a word, by the way, but indicates the geographic coordinates of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where most of the rover was developed.
looks like “dare mighty things” is the parachute code from the @NASAJPL perseverance rover
the phrase is on signs all around JPL (eg the EDL War Room)
redditor, / u / rdtwt1, put together a python script for the solve
I added some comments and a diagram to explain what the code https://t.co/w67mRey5Bl pic.twitter.com/ulUdtX5Uco
– adithya (@adithya_balaji) February 23, 2021
This is what Mars sounds like: NASA publishes video of Rover Perseverance
Not the first Easter egg from NASA
The encrypted message is by no means the first Easter egg that Nasa has integrated into its missions – nor is it the first or only one with regard to the Rover Perseverance. The vehicle is equipped with various objects and referenceswhich, according to NASA, “range from functional to decorative”. Including the names of almost eleven million people who had registered for it, as well as a commemorative plaque referring to the corona pandemic and the perseverance of employees in the health sector.
You have to see these memes about Perseverance landing on Mars
With all its love for gimmicks and Easter eggs, NASA always has to maintain the balance between what is necessary and what is nice. After all, the space on such a rover or space shuttle is limited. That should actually be the reason why Perseverance’s predecessor Curiosity stopped singing “Happy Birthday” for itself: The answer seems “pretty cold and callous,” says Nasa employee Florence Tan The Atlantic. “We don’t get any scientific benefit from the rover playing music or singing ‘Happy Birthday’.” In such cases, science wins the battle between music and science.
