There is a message hidden in the parachute of NASA’s Mars rover

The parachute that helped NASA’s Perseverance rover land on Mars last week deployed to reveal a seemingly random color pattern in video clips of the rover’s landing. But there was more to the story: NASA officials later said it contained a hidden message written in binary computer code.

Internet detectives deciphered the message within hours. The red and white pattern spelled out “Dare Mighty Things” in concentric rings. The saying is the motto of the Perseverance team, and it’s also inscribed on the mission control walls of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the headquarters of the mission team in Southern California.

The outer ring of the parachute appears to translate to the coordinates for JPL: 34 ° 11’58 ”N 118 ° 10’31” W.

Allen Chen, Perseverance’s entry, descent and landing chief, challenged the audience to get the message at a press conference on Monday. “In addition to enabling incredible science, we hope that our efforts in our engineering can inspire others,” he said.

“Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find for this purpose, so we invite all of you to try and show your work.”

Adam Steltzner, chief engineer at Perseverance, confirmed the post Monday evening on Twitter.

The “Dare Mighty Things” message wasn’t the only quirk Perseverance brought to Mars. Zooming in on one of the several thousand images that NASA released by the rover this week shows a small family portrait of the former Mars rovers, Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter, which accompanied Perseverance to Mars.

Photo: NASA / JPL | Edited by Joey Roulette / The Verge

NASA has already included hidden messages on its rovers. The Curiosity rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2012, had tiny holes dotted through its hollow aluminum wheels to allow Mars pebbles caught inside to escape.

These holes read “JPL” in Morse code. So when Curiosity roamed the surface, “JPL” was stamped in Morse code on Martian soil (although it was wiped out shortly after by the Martian wind).

Chen said The edge that Perseverance engineers could have put more hidden messages on the rover beyond the “Dare Mighty Things” code in its parachute.

“People can’t resist putting a little personal touch in their work,” Chen said. “But the vast majority of them will never be known – even by me.”