The huge parachute used by Nasa’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message, thanks to a puzzle lover on the spacecraft team.
Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70ft parachute.
He also included the GPS co-ordinates for the mission’s headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
Mr Clark, a crossword fan, came up with the idea two years ago.
Engineers wanted an unusual pattern in the nylon fabric to know how the parachute was oriented during descent. Turning it into a secret message was “super fun,” he said.
Only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday’s landing, according to Mr Clark. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference on Monday.
It took just a few hours for space fans to figure it out, Mr Clark said. Next time, he noted: “I’ll have to be a little bit more creative.”
“Dare Mighty Things” — a line from Us president Theodore Roosevelt — is a mantra at JPL and adorns many of the centre’s walls.
📸 Did you know @NASAPersevere is equipped with 19 cameras, plus four more on other parts of the entry, descent and landing hardware — more than any other Mars mission? Take a look at thousands of images already captured: https://t.co/K4PfCM8BLz pic.twitter.com/bSHdEFw3TZ
— NASA (@NASA) February 23, 2021
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The trick was “trying to come up with a way of encoding it but not making it too obvious”, Mr Clark said.
As for the GPS co-ordinates, the spot is 10ft from the entrance to JPL’s visitor centre.
Another added touch not widely known until touchdown: Perseverance bears a plaque depicting all five of Nasa’s Mars rovers in increasing size over the years.
Deputy project manager Matt Wallace promises more so-called hidden Easter eggs. They should be visible once Perseverance’s 7ft arm is deployed in a few days and starts photographing under the vehicle, and again when the rover is driving in a couple weeks.
“Definitely, definitely, you should keep a good lookout,” he urged.
