On the 61st Martian day (Sol 61 - October 7, 2012 on Earth), the robot scooped up the Martian soil with a scoop. The shot includes a filled scoop measuring about 5 by 7 centimeters, a part of the robot and the surface on which it stands. And on this surface, NASA specialists made out some object that clearly stood out from the surrounding background. They named it - bright object.
- We just don't know what it is! - admitted to NASA. And for several days they could not identify the object photographed by the Curiosity robot at its own wheels.
A close-up black-and-white photo with a dedicated microphoto camera (ChemCam: Remote Micro-Imager) did not add clarity. On the contrary. This very bright object has become like, excuse me, either like a shrimp, or like a cockroach.
The situation cleared up on October 11 (Sol 65) after Curiosity photographed a bright object with a MAHLI camera. The color photo clearly showed that the bright object is not a cockroach. In fact, where do cockroaches come from on Mars? The similarity with shrimp, however, has been preserved. But NASA decided that a piece of plastic got into the frame - like plastic wrap. Its size is 13 millimeters. In the first place, the experts who put forward the most plausible explanations sinned on a piece.
Another question: what did the piece fall off from? From which object? There is no definite answer. However, the experts decided to consider: if something fell off, it was not from the rover. It couldn't. There is nothing to fall off there. Piece - from some detail that participated in the landing operations.
Maybe from thermal protection. Or from a jet platform. Or even a parachute. And it was brought by the wind just to where the robot began to scoop the soil with a shovel. By the way, two scoops of soil collected earlier were found unsuitable for subsequent analyzes - they supposedly could have gotten other - smaller pieces from the Earth. It was decided to collect the third scoop.
