THE RED PLANET — The huge parachute used by NASA's Perseverance rover to land on Mars contained a secret message.
Systems engineer Ian Clark used a binary code to spell out “Dare Mighty Things” in the orange and white strips of the 70-foot parachute.
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He also included the GPS coordinates for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Clark said Tuesday only about six people knew about the encoded message before Thursday's landing.
Clark says the fabric pattern was mainly for engineers to know how the parachute was oriented during descent.
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He said it didn't take long for space fans to figure it out.
FOX News reports deputy project manager Matt Wallace has promised more "Easter Eggs" associated with Perseverance.
"[Wallace] said they should be visible once Perseverance’s seven-foot arm is deployed in a few days and starts photographing under the vehicle, and again when the rover is driving in a couple weeks," the FOX News report says.
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