In mid-August 2022, NASA confirmed that a piece of garbage dumped during the descent of the Mars rover Perseverance had been located. But this isn’t the first time scientists have found human-made garbage on Mars, because there’s so much more out there.
There are several sources of human pollution on Mars. First, all spacecraft that land on Mars leave trash behind. Vehicles that have reached the end of their working life also stay on the surface of Mars. In addition, there is also debris from spacecraft that crashed into the Martian surface due to a failed landing.
Parts (such as heat shields, parachute parts, connection equipment) from spacecraft that crashed into the surface of Mars and shattered can be dragged in different directions, far from the point they fell due to Martian winds.
Many such fragments have been discovered during years of Mars observations. In addition to these fragments, there are currently nine non-operating spacecraft that stand in one piece on the Martian surface. These are the Mars 3 lander, the Mars 6 lander, the Viking 1 lander, the Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner probe, the Beagle 2 lander, the Phoenix lander, the Spirit probe, and the Opportunity probe, which has reached the end of its most recent mission. tool. Although these vehicles remain in one piece, they can also be considered as historical artifacts rather than space junk.
As a result, when we collect the materials that came from the Earth on the surface of Mars, we see that it is about 10,000 tons of material. Scientists are worried that this garbage could endanger future Mars missions. Therefore, all detected vehicle remains are documented.
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