(210218) -- WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2021 (Xinhua) -- This image made available by NASA shows an illustration of NASA's Perseverance rover deploying a supersonic parachute from its aeroshell as it slows down before landing. NASA's Perseverance rover touched down safely on Mars on Thursday, kicking off the agency's ninth mission on the Red Planet. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via Xinhua) (Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)
U.S.-NASA-PRESEVERANCE ROVER-LANDING
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The huge parachute used by NASA’s Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message.
Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot parachute. He also included the GPS coordinates for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Clark said Tuesday only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday’s landing. Clark says the fabric pattern was mainly for engineers to know how the parachute was oriented during descent. He said it didn’t take long for space fans to figure it out.
