NASA’s Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars on on February 18, 2021—and as it did so it displayed a special message.
In one of the most visually impactful parts of the incredible video of its dramatic landing on Mars was the unfurling of the rover’s red and orange parachute, which NASA has just revealed displays binary code that reads:
“Dare Mighty Things.”
What does that mean, where does it come from (clue: it was said by a politician in 1899)and why did NASA go to the trouble of sending a message to Mars?
The parachute’s code actually says more than just that three-word phrase—and on the rover is also a motto, 7 iconic images, 155 essays and 10.9 million names.
This is not the first time NASA has sent “secret” messages to Mars.
Here’s everything you need to know:
Why did Perseverance need a supersonic parachute?
NASA’s Perseverance rover got into the Martian atmosphere in a protective back shell that was equipped with a 70.5 feet/21.5 meters diameter parachute.
As it unfurled 7 miles/11 kilometers above Jezero Crater, to slowdown the spacecraft from 940 mph/1,512 kph, a parachute-up-look camera snapped some images.
What was written on Perseverance’s parachute?
Two messages were encoded in binary in an orange-and-white pattern on the parachute’s gores, one on the outer ring and one in a spiral on the inner ring:
Inner ring: “Dare Mighty Things,” with each word on its own ring of gores.
Outer ring: The GPS coordinates (34°11’58” N 118°10’31” W) for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the rover was built and the project is managed.
Here’s the decoded version from NASA:
Using binary code, two messages were encoded in the parachute that got NASA's Perseverance rover on ... [+]
And here’s what the parachute was expected to look like. This image also gives you a better sense of scale of Perseverance’s supersonic parachute:
In this June 2017 photo, the supersonic parachute design that will land NASA's Perseverance rover on ... [+]
What ‘Dare Mighty Things’ means and why NASA encoded it on the parachute
“Dare Mighty Things” is the motto of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, the center for the robotic exploration of the Solar System.
The phrase comes from a famous speech by Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, New York Governor, in Chicago on April 10, 1899 in which he argued that strenuous effort and overcoming hardship were what Americans must embrace:
“Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure ... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
The binary code pattern on the supersonic parachute was designed by Ian Clark, Mars 2020 Perseverance Systems Engineer at JPL.
The Perseverance rover's "cal targets."
More messages on Perseverance
It doesn’t stop there. To take accurate color on Mars, the rover’s wide-angle Mastcam-Z cameras need to calibrate, so on the rover’s deck is a pair of small color-reference targets. Called “cal targets” (pictured above) they help Perseverance’s camera system get the colors of Mars exactly right in photographs.
However, in between the color and grayscale patches are seven small icons:
- Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars orbiting the Sun.
- A DNA strand.
- Cyanobacteria (early microorganisms on Earth).
- A fern (symbolizing green plants).
- A dinosaur.
- Two waving humans (which recalls the plaques on NASA’s Pioneer and encoded on NASA’s Voyager Golden Records).
- A space rocket.
The cal target also has a motto, “Two Worlds, One Beginning.” NASA’s previous rover, Curiosity, has one that reads “To Mars To Explore” while its older Spirit and Opportunity rovers both had “Two Worlds, One Sun.”
So this is not the first time that NASA has baked-in coded messages to its Martian hardware.
Yet NASA’s most recent rover, Curiosity, has been leaving messages literally on the Martian surface for almost a decade ...
This image shows a close-up of track marks from the first test drive of NASA's Curiosity rover—and ... [+]
The ‘secret message’ on NASA’s Curiosity rover
When NASA’s Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012, it too took a message to Mars. In its track marks, visible above as straight bands across the zigzag track marks, is a repeating pattern that reads “JPL.”
The Morse code is: .—- (J), .—. (P), and .-.. (L), which is imprinted on all six wheels.
It’s not just there for fun. The Curiosity rover uses images of the repeating pattern to determine exactly how far it has traveled and allows it to check that there’s been no wheel slippage.
Perseverance is also carrying 10.9 million names
Both of NASA’s most recent rovers also carry millions of names on microchips—from “Send Your Name To Mars” PR campaigns—with Curiosity storing 1.2 million names and Perseverance carrying 10.9 million.
Also on its tiny microchip are 155 essays from the finalists in NASA's “Name the Rover” essay contest.
This wind-carved rock seen in first 360-degree panorama taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument shows just ... [+]
The latest from the Perseverance rover
Since the landing the rover has sent back hundreds of images from a zoomable pair of cameras called Mastcam-Z, 142 of which were used to stick together a 360º panorama. It’s so highly detailed that it’s possible to get close-ups of rock features seen in the distance.
Expect many more photos from Perseverance to be posted by NASA in the coming weeks, months and years as the rover searches the ancient lake-bed for signs of ancient life. It will also collect samples of rock and soil for possible return to Earth in the 2030s.
Perseverance is also carrying a small Mars Helicopter, also known as Ingenuity, which expected to take its first powered flight shortly.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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2021-02-25 09:59:39Z
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