A NASA helicopter which flew dozens of missions on Mars once photographed an 'otherworldly' looking sight of some spacecraft debris amidst the red sand.
Of course it's going to be otherworldly, the images were literally taken on another world, but perhaps as a species we're going to have to get more accustomed to the idea of seeing the presence of life on grounds other than that which we walk upon.
Right now, we can only send technology to other worlds, but we're just 121 years on from working out how to develop flying machines so think where we might be by the end of this century.
As part of the Mars 2020 mission, NASA sent up their Perseverance Rover and underneath it was carried the Ingenuity Helicopter, which was planned to make five flights over the red planet.
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In the end, the helicopter completed 72 flights, and also became the first aircraft to successfully complete a powered, controlled flight on another world.
The helicopter was meant to go to places which the rover couldn't safely reach and take a series of images so we could look upon this other world, and in 2022, snapped a spectacular view.
Wreckage of a spacecraft, laying in the sands of Mars and slightly reddened by the contact, a collection of objects manufactured on another world that may now lie forever upon the near-silent surface of the red planet.
Ian Clark, an engineer who worked on Perseverance's parachute system, told The New York Times: "There's definitely a sci-fi element to it. It exudes otherworldly, doesn't it?
“They say a picture's worth 1,000 words, but it's also worth an infinite amount of engineering understanding.”
If you're thinking this is the work of aliens, then I'm sorry to say it isn't, these shattered remains strewn upon red sand are man-made.
While it may look 'otherworldly' and right out of science fiction, this debris isn't actually evidence that aliens live among us or have been getting as close to us as the surface of Mars.
If we're finding spaceship debris on another planet then it's because we put it there, and what the NASA helicopter found was part of the landing equipment used to bring Ingenuity down to the surface of Mars along with the Perseverance Rover.
When it comes to space humans are dreadful litterbugs, the orbit of our planet is clogged full of debris we've sent up there and now no longer need.
Now it seems like we're also going to be clogging up other worlds with our leavings too.
Perhaps one day we'll make it to Mars and be able to clean all this up, or maybe we'll leave this debris where it lies as a point in the history of human space travel.
According to the Natural History Museum, there are about 2,000 active satellites orbiting Earth but around 3,000 more 'dead' satellites which we don't use still floating up there.
There are also thousands more pieces of debris floating around our planet which pose a danger to spacecraft and our future hopes of space travel.
Topics: Space, Science, Technology, NASA
Joe Harker