Mars has always attracted mankind’s interest since it was first seen as a star-like object in the night sky. Both Indian myths and Hollywood sci-fi movies are guilty of this. Humans began investigating Mars around 50 years ago, and NASA intends to send a human trip there for the first time by the 2030s.
Although humans are yet to set foot on Mars, we are not slowing down in our efforts to litter the red planet and make it more like Earth.
“The adventurous robotic explorations by human beings have already left more than 7118.6 kilograms of human waste on the red planet,” says Cagri Kilic, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at West Virginia University.
To arrive at this estimate, the mass of all Mars rovers and orbiters was analysed and deducted from the mass of those that were still operating.
According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, several countries have dispatched 18 human-made spacecraft to Mars on 14 different missions.
In mid-August 2022, NASA announced that the Perseverance Mars rover had uncovered a piece of debris that had been tossed after landing. It was not the first time that researchers discovered trash on Mars. There is a substantial amount of rubbish there.
Mr Kilic went on to say, “Debris on Mars comes from three main sources: discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft and crashed spacecraft. Every mission to the Martian surface requires a module that protects the spacecraft. This module includes a heat shield for when the craft passes through the planet’s atmosphere and a parachute and landing hardware so that it can land softly.”
The fragments of damaged spacecraft are another major source of rubbish. At least two spacecraft have crashed, while four others have lost touch soon before or immediately after landing.
According to Kilic, the littered material on Mars’ surface may have an impact on future Mars missions. There are concerns that the rubbish will contaminate the samples collected by the rovers or that they will become entangled in the stuff.
