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Terrestrial Garbage On Mars

Posted by timothy on from the because-we-have-enough-of-it-here dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The garbage left behind by the twin Mars rovers was highlighted this week by the close-up view in panorama of the Spirit rovers' heatshield. Not including the various Viking, Pathfinder and some crippled probes, the human contribution of rover hardware to the martian surface now includes a few odd nicknacks, parachutes, heatshields, back shell,landing petals and many wheel tracks. It may be September before the rovers themselves become part of the red planet's debris field."

2 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Cowards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    While anonymous the coward submitting this story still doesn't have the guts to say why he listed all these facts. I'll have to guess he thinks it's a wrong to make that mess. Does anyone really think that's such a big mess?

    It's less mess than a single paper clip in my back yard. If that's the only mess we make on Mars, I'm going to be very sad and disappointed.

    Yes, I am a bleeding heart liberal quasi-socialist envormentalist. It's not like we're covering Mars with buckyballs or anything. :-)

  2. Today's Trash is Tomorrow's Treasure by waynegoode · · Score: 4, Insightful
    After seeing pictures of the debris on Mars a few weeks ago, I considered making a mock "Mars Enviromental Front" page protesting the Earth's littering and distrubing of the Martian ecology. But, truth can be stranger than fiction.

    Keep it in perpective! It's not that much debris and there really is no other way to carry out these missions.

    In a hundred years or so, when Mars is colonized, there will probably be museams at the landing spots of the various rovers with all their debris collected and displayed. People will pass by and ooh and aah at our antique technology.