Mars rover's giant parachute carried secret message

Phys.Org ^ | February 24, 2021 | Marcia Dunn

[buckalfa]

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 70-foot (21-meter) parachute. He also included the GPS coordinates for the mission's headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Clark, a crossword hobbyist, 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 Tuesday.

Only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday's landing, according to Clark. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference Monday.

It took just a few hours for space fans to figure it out, Clark said. Next time, he noted, "I'll have to be a little bit more creative."

"Dare Mighty Things"—a line from President Theodore Roosevelt—is a mantra at JPL and adorns many of the center's walls. The trick was "trying to come up with a way of encoding it but not making it too obvious," Clark said.

[buckalfa]

It would have been way cool if the secret message had read: "Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine"!

[Candor7]

It would have been way cool if the secret message had read: "Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine"!>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nah!

Tt would have been way cool if the secret message had read:

"Make America Great Again!"

[lowbridge]

“We have been trying to reach you regarding your car’s extended warranty”

[laweeks]

[mad_as_he$$]

So JPL will be the first place attacked by the Martians. Thanks for the heads up!

[eartick]

My binary was a little rusty but that is way cool.

I guess they didn’t want to confuse the little green men with octal base numeration.

[V_TWIN]

NERDS......they’re cooler than we think.

[sit-rep]

I dont know if it's arrogance or ignorance assuming someone will see/interpret/understand this message. for anyone/thing to be able to find and read it, would probably be so advanced that they would look at it as if some primitive beings just discovered the wheel...

[21twelve]

Or “Make Mars great Again!”

I had to look at the progress of the Chinese rover. It is “parked” in orbit and will spend 3 months getting images of possible landing sites.

I guess that is one way to do it. It sounds like all of our landings (including the moon) were planned out from the very beginning. I guess this gives the Chinese some options without having our continuous satellite info from Mars. But it would also seem to have some limitations as they are already in an orbit.

For the sake of science I would like for them to succeed. But - it is China, so I hope they crash and burn. As long as that doesn’t release some weird contamination that they wanted to experiment with up there.

[Hot Tabasco]

GPS coordinates for the mission's headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Better hope that the aliens who find it are friendly.......

[Rodm]

You can’t say Aliens —they’re undocumented space travelers 😂

[Magnatron]

He also included the GPS coordinates for the mission's headquarters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Great, now the Martians will know how to find us...

[Chainmail]

Actually, I hope that our rover finds their rover and kills it. That would send a message.

[PIF]

the Chinese rover. It is “parked” in orbit and will spend 3 months getting images of possible landing sites.
—

If it takes them 3 months to find a parking place, then you can be assured they are up to something besides what they claim. 3 months does not reflect well on the CCP, since the Americans went straight there and landed. If something does not reflect well on China and the CCP, then they will be trouble at the launch site, unless of course there is some other plan which will glorify the CCP.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

World War I cryptographers trained by William and Elizebeth Friedman, Aurora, Illinois, early 1918. By facing either forward or sideways, the soldiers formed a coded phrase utilizing Francis Bacon’s biliteral cipher. The intended message was the Baconian motto “Knowledge is power,” but there were insufficient people to complete the r (and the w was compromised by one soldier looking the wrong way)

Steganography is the practice of concealing a message within another message or a physical object.

[SgtHooper]

The CCP is imaging for minerals, and will lay claim to that terrain. Then watch the world gasp!

[martin_fierro]

[Flick Lives]

Clark, a crossword hobbyist, 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 Tuesday.

—

This is definitely the geeky side of the scientific mind. I like it.

[ZinGirl]

OMG. You made my day with that. Great, fun article...and comments do not disappoint. :)

[rlmorel]

LOL, I have this vision of some Martians standing there, Martian beers in hand, pondering the obscure message on the parachute, and saying angrily in Martianese:

"WTF is wrong with these people? Why don't they just come out and say it? It is some kind of test that they taunt us with, as if they think we aren't smart enough to figure it out? I hate this crap. I've got an idea. Why don't we use one of our many Martian Death Rays to destroy that planet, starting with the people who sent this?"