• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
NASA's Mars Helicopter Finds 'Otherworldly' Wreckage On Planet's Surface

Home> News

Updated 15:01 28 Apr 2022 GMT+1Published 13:26 28 Apr 2022 GMT+1

NASA's Mars Helicopter Finds 'Otherworldly' Wreckage On Planet's Surface

The Ingenuity helicopter captured crystal-clear images of the debris after landing on Mars with the Perseverance rover

Abbi Murray

Abbi Murray

‘Otherworldly’ images captured by a NASA helicopter appear to show a scene straight out of a science fiction film.

The extraordinary images were captured by NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which celebrated its 26th flight to the Red Planet and its one-year anniversary of its first flight on 19 April. 

Aptly dubbed the ‘marscopter’, the vehicle was originally designed to fly just five times, but has since enjoyed an extensive career travelling around space. 

Advert

NASA/JPL-Caltech

However, rather than being the photos being linked to aliens, the wreckage is actually the remains of the landing equipment used when the vehicle landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover. 

Likened to the size of a car, Ingenuity had a parachute and cone-shaped back shell to protect it during its descent towards the unearthly surface. 

Released by NASA, the striking coloured pictures show the equipment resting on Mars in incredible detail. 

Advert

Speaking to the NY Times, Ian Clark, an engineer who worked on Perseverance’s parachute system, said of the photographs: “There's definitely a sci-fi element to it. It exudes otherworldly, doesn't it?” 

He continued: “They say a picture's worth 1,000 words, but it's also worth an infinite amount of engineering understanding.” 

Tasked with entry, descent and landing on Mars, the vehicles are subject to gravitational forces, high temperatures and other extremes that come with entering Mars’ atmosphere at nearly 12,500 mph. 

Therefore, the whole ordeal is incredibly stressful for the hopeful engineers back on Earth. 

Advert

According to NASA, the crystal-clear photographs could help to ensure safer landings for future spacecraft, such as the Mars Sample Return Lander, which is part of a mission that would bring Perseverance’s samples back to Earth for detailed analysis by science boffins. 

NASA/JPL-Caltech

“Perseverance had the best-documented Mars landing in history, with cameras showing everything from parachute inflation to touchdown,” Clark said. 

“But Ingenuity's images offer a different vantage point.  

Advert

“If they either reinforce that our systems worked as we think they worked or provide even one dataset of engineering information we can use for Mars Sample Return planning, it will be amazing.  

“And if not, the pictures are still phenomenal and inspiring.” 

Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity's team lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said: “NASA extended Ingenuity flight operations to perform pioneering flights such as this. 

“Every time we're airborne, Ingenuity covers new ground and offers a perspective no previous planetary mission could achieve.” 

Advert

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Featured Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Topics: Science, Space, NASA

Abbi Murray
Abbi Murray

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter captured 'otherworldly' wreckage on Mars’ surface before dramatically crash landing
  • The real story behind the ‘otherworldly’ wreckage captured by NASA’s Mars helicopter on surface of the planet
  • NASA’s Mars helicopter captured 'otherworldly' wreckage on surface of planet
  • NASA's Mars rover discovers strange spheres on planet's surface that has experts stunned

Choose your content:

3 mins ago
an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • 3 mins ago

    Mother's heartbreaking plea before twins, 6, were killed in aggressive tornado

    Kayleigh Bisson lost two of her daughters after a storm swept through New York

    News
  • an hour ago

    NASA investigation into thousands of 'dark streaks' on Martian surface changes everything it thought about the phenomenon

    Scientists used AI machine learning to help make the incredible discovery

    Technology
  • an hour ago

    'Living Nostradamus' gives chilling WW3 warning after Trump claims ceasefire is in effect between Iran and Israel

    Athos Salomé, a Brazilian psychic dubbed the 'Living Nostradamus', believes another key player will enter the Middle Eastern conflict

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Tourist who was trapped 1,600ft down active volcano for days tragically dies before rescuers get to her

    Juliana Marins, from Brazil, has tragically died

    News