CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: 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. Turning it into a secret message was “super fun,” he said Tuesday. They waited until the parachute images came back before putting out a teaser during a televised news conference Monday. 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.

Source: Manila Times February 23, 2021 23:48 UTC