24 FEBRUARY 2021
When NASA's Perseverance rover made its daring descent to the red planet, you may have noticed that its parachute bore an unusual arrangement of red and white chevrons.
That pattern, it turns out, was not random at all, but a hidden code. Within just six hours, internet sleuths had cracked it, revealing a beautifully uplifting message: "Dare Mighty Things".
The phrase has been used as the motto by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for years, taken from a speech delivered by American president Theodore Roosevelt in 1899:
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
The hidden message was first mentioned in the landing livestream by NASA systems engineer Allen Chen, who commented, "In addition to enabling incredible science, we hope our efforts and our engineering can inspire others. Sometimes we leave messages in our work for others to find for that purpose. So we invite you all to give it a shot and show your work."
The first solution posted online seems to have been by IT student Abela Paf on Twitter. The message, he said, had been decoded by him and his father, who identified that the chevrons were arranged in concentric rings that encoded a 10-bit pattern.
"dare mighty things" ! Well done! @NASA @NASAPerseverepic.twitter.com/Di1hkFQApd
— Abela_Paf (@FrenchTech_paf) February 22, 2021"Each binary number encodes a position in the alphabet, starting at 1," he explained. "For the word 'mighty', we just have to start counting 40 bits later and it would be correct."
If the red sections are 1s and the white sections are 0s, the rings can be broken down into blocks that represent numbers. Then you add the number 64. So the first letter in the code is 0000000100, which gives you the number 4. Add 64 to get 68 - the ASCII code for the capital letter D.
That explains the inner three rings. The outer ring, on the other hand, displays letters and numbers: 34 11 58 N 118 10 31 W. These, posted to reddit by user tend0g, are the geographic coordinates for JPL - 34°11'58" N 118°10'31" W.
Chief Perseverance engineer Adam Steltzner of NASA JPL confirmed the solution.
It looks like the internet has cracked the code in something like 6 hours! Oh internet is there anything you can't do? For those who just want to know: #Mars2020 #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/yTJCEnbuLY
— Adam Steltzner (@steltzner) February 23, 2021That's not Perseverance's only secret message, though.
The rays of the Sun on the placard containing a chip bearing names and messages from Earthlings are in Morse code, spelling out the phrase "Explore As One". And tucked away on a plate on its chassis is a family portrait of all NASA's Mars rovers: Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance and Ingenuity.
Some of you spotted the special message I'm carrying to Mars along with the 10.9+ million names you all sent in. "Explore As One" is written in Morse code in the Sun's rays, which connect our home planet with the one I'll explore. Together, we persevere. https://t.co/Bsv1mqpxlApic.twitter.com/GhcS1HgsIN
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 30, 2020Curiosity isn't without secrets, either. A pattern in the rover's wheels is also Morse code, spelling out JPL. Indeed, sending coded messages to space on our exploration vessels is something of a tradition.
As Allen Chen noted to The Verge, Perseverance could be riddled with many more secrets.
"People can't resist putting a little personal touch in their work," he said. "But the vast majority of these will never be known - even by me."
當美國宇航局的"毅力"號火星車降落在這顆紅色星球上時，你可能已經注意到它的降落傘上布置著不同尋常的紅色和白色的V型圖案。
事實證明，這些條紋根本不是隨機的，而是一個隱藏的代碼。在短短的六個小時裡，網際網路偵探們破解了它，揭示了一個令人振奮的信息："勇往直前"。
這句話多年來一直被美國宇航局噴氣推進實驗室（JPL）用作座右銘，取自美國總統西奧多·羅斯福1899年的演講：
"朝著偉大的事業勇往直前，贏得光榮的勝利，即使其中摻雜著失敗，也高於與那些既沒有享受多大快樂也沒有遭受多大痛苦的平庸之輩為伍，因為他們生活在一個既享受不到勝利也遭遇不到痛苦的境地裡。"
美國宇航局系統工程師艾倫·陳（Allen Chen）在著陸直播中首次提到了這一隱藏的信息，他評論道："除了實現令人難以置信的科學之外，我們希望我們的努力和工程能夠激勵其他人。有時我們在工作中留下信息，讓其他人為此找到信息。因此，我們邀請大家給它一個鏡頭，並顯示您的工作。
網上發布的第一個解決方案似乎是IT學生阿貝拉·帕夫在推特上發布的。他說，這條信息是由他和他的父親解碼的，他發現V型圖案被排列成同心環，編碼了10位圖案。
"勇往直前" ! 做得好！@NASA @NASAPersevere pic.twitter.com/Di1hkFQApd
— Abela_Paf (@FrenchTech_paf) February 22, 2021
"每個二進位數字都編碼字母表中的一個位置，從 1 開始，"他解釋道。" "對於'mighty'這個詞，我們只需要在40位後開始計數，這將是正確的。
紅色是條紋是1，白色的條紋是0, 一圈作為一個欄位。然後添加數字64。因此，代碼中的第一個字母是 000000100，它為您提供了數字 4。添加 64 以獲得 68 - 大寫字母 D 的 ASCII 代碼。
這就解釋了內三環。另一方面，外環顯示字母和數字：34 11 58 N 118 10 31 W。這些，張貼到 reddit 由用戶傾向於 0g， 是 JPL 的地理坐標 - 34°11'58" N 118°10'31" W.
美國宇航局JPL的首席毅力工程師亞當·斯特爾茨納證實了這一答案。
它看起來像網際網路已經破解了代碼在類似6小時的東西！哦，網際網路有什麼你不能做的嗎？
For those who just want to know: #Mars2020 #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/yTJCEnbuLY
— Adam Steltzner (@steltzner) February 23, 2021
不過，這不是毅力號的唯一秘密信息。
標語牌上的太陽光線包含一個晶片，上面印有地球人的名字和信息，在莫爾斯代碼中，拼出了"探索至上"的短語。 隱藏在底盤上的盤子裡，是美國宇航局所有火星探測器的全家福：索約納、精神、機會、好奇心、毅力和聰明才智。
你們中的一些人發現了攜帶到火星的特別信息，以及你們發送的1090多萬個名字。"探索至上"寫在太陽光線的莫爾斯代碼中，它連接著我們的地球和我將要探索的星球。我們一起契而不舍。https://t.co/Bsv1mqpxlA pic.twitter.com/GhcS1HgsIN
— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) March 30, 2020
好奇號也有秘密。一副登陸車的輪子上也有摩斯電碼, 拼出JPL. 事實上，探索飛船上向太空發送編碼信息是一種傳統。
正如艾倫·陳在《Verge》中指出的，毅力號可能充滿了更多的秘密。
"人們忍不住在工作中有點個人化，"他說。 "但其中絕大多數永遠不會知道 - 包括我。"