Humans have left more than 15,000 pounds of garbage on Mars in the last 50 years, and not a single human has ever set foot on the red planet.
Cagri Kilic, a robotics postdoctoral fellow at West Virginia University, analyzed the mass of all rovers and orbiters sent to Mars and subtracted the weight of what is currently operational, resulting in 15,694 pounds of debris.
The junk includes discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft and those that have crashed on the surface — notably the Soviet Union’s Mars Orbiter 2, which crash-landed in 1971.
Not only are humans already polluting another planet, but scientists worry the debris could contaminate samples being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is currently searching for ancient life on Mars.
A scientist has calculated that there is 15,694 pounds of garbage on Mars. Most of it comes from discarded hardware like this thermal blanket that protected NASA’s Perseverance as it descended through the infernal atmosphere
Much of the debris is unavoidable, as many of the parts have to be thrown away to protect the ship as it floats through the red planet’s infernal atmosphere — including NASA’s Perseverance, which survived the seven minutes of hell when it launched in February 2021 landed.
The rover, which collects samples on Mars to be returned to Earth, captured images of debris during its mission.
In June, the NASA team on Earth spotted a light in the distance in an image sent back from Perseverance, which they then directed the rover to look at.
A few weeks later, Perseverance entered the Hogwallow Flats region and acquired a high-resolution 360-degree Mastcam Z-Panorama.
The Ingenuity helicopter captured an image with Perseverance of the landing gear used upon its arrival. Images is a parachute and the cone-shaped outer shell that protected the rover in space
More recently, in June, Perseverance stumbled upon a piece of shredded Dacron web that helped it land safely on Mars
And due to the Martian winds, the tight web began to unravel and could be seen three weeks later as a tangle of knotted, thread-like material
The image showed that the bright light was the reflection of a thermal blanket.
This was used to protect the car-sized vehicle from the extreme temperatures it encountered during landing.
The ceiling is tucked into the corner of several rocks and appears to reflect light.
The rover’s companion, the Ingenuity helicopter, also snapped a picture of the landing gear used on its arrival with Perseverance in 2021.
A parachute and the cone-shaped outer shell that protected the rover in space and during its fiery descent to the Martian surface were seen in incredible detail.
More recently, in June, Perseverance stumbled upon a piece of shredded Dacron web that helped it land safely on Mars.
And due to the Martian winds, the tight web began to unravel and could be seen three weeks later as a tangle of knotted, thread-like material.
NASA’s Opportunity is now dead on Mars, but it sent a picture of its heat shield in 2004, along with debris littering the ground for several miles.
A total of nine inactive spacecraft are located on Mars, including the Mars 3 lander, the Mars 6 lander, the Viking 1 lander, the Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner rover, the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander (pictured), the Phoenix lander, the Spirit Rover and the Opportunity Rover
Then there are the dead robots on Mars, notably NASA’s Opportunity, which was active from 2004 to mid-2018.
This rover weighs about 347 pounds, the same weight as a hippopotamus, and is now stuck in the Martin dirt.
However, it left a trail of debris as it traversed the Red Planet.
It sent NASA an image of its heat shield in 2004, along with debris littering the ground for several miles.
A total of nine inactive spacecraft are located on Mars, including the Mars 3 lander, the Mars 6 lander, the Viking 1 lander, the Viking 2 lander, the Sojourner rover, the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander, the Phoenix lander, and the Spirit rover the casual rover.
According to Kilic, most of the robots are still intact and space agencies regard them as historical monuments rather than discarded junk.
“If you add up the mass of all spacecraft ever sent to Mars, you get about 22,000 pounds (9979 kilograms),” Kilic wrote in The Conversation.
“Subtract the weight of the currently operating spacecraft on the surface – 6,306 pounds (2,860 kilograms) – and you have 15,694 pounds (7,119 kilograms) of human debris on Mars.”
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