Humans have left more than 15,000 pounds of trash on Mars in the last 50 years and not a single person has ever stepped foot on the red planet. Cagri Kilic, a postdoctoral research fellow in robotics at West Virginia University, analyzed the mass of all rovers and orbiters sent to Mars and subtracted the weight of what is currently in operation, resulting in 15,694 pounds of debris. The trash includes discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft and those that crashed on the surface - specifically the Soviet Union's Mars orbiter 2 that made a crash landing in 1971. Not only are humans already polluting another planet, but scientists fear the debris could contaminate samples being collected by NASA's Perseverance rover that is currently searching for ancient life on Mars. A scientist calculates there is 15,694 pounds of trash on Mars. Most of it stems from discarded hardware like this thermal blanket that protected NASA's Perseverance survive its descent through the hellish atmosphere Much of the garbage is inevitable, as many of the parts have to be discarded in order to protect craft as it soars through the Red Planet's hellish atmosphere - including NASA's Perseverance that endured the seven minutes of hell when it landed in February 2021.

It turns out Earth is not the only planet humans are contaminating. A new image snapped by NASA's Perseverance rover captures the sad reality of how we are already littering Mars with rubbish. Engineers discovered a discarded thermal blanket which they said was used to protect the car-sized vehicle from extreme temperatures it experienced during landing. 'It's a surprise finding this here,' they said, as Perseverance's descent took place just over a mile away from where the debris was found. The team added: 'Did this piece land here after that, or was it blown here by the wind?' It is not the first time a bit of wreckage has been spotted on the Red Planet this year.