The Martian helicopter ingenuity records a piece of an unknown object stuck in its leg

ingenuity helicopter NASA has just completed its 33rd trip to Mars, and that flight had an unexpected turn: a piece of something unknown got stuck in one of the legs of its lander.

NASA wrote in a statement that the Ingenuity Navigation Camera, or NavCam, captured images of the driver during his flight on September 24. Status update. Footage shows the helicopter taking off with debris hanging from one of her legs, like a piece of toilet paper stuck in a shoe. As the creation moves through the air, debris separates from the probe stem and floats away.

NASA indicated that the debris was not present in the NavCam images from the previous Ingenuity flight, and that all the helicopter data are nominal, meaning the debris most likely did not come from Ingenuity. While it looks like plastic, NASA says the Ingenuity team is working to determine exactly what it is and where it came from. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for more information.

During the 33rd flight—surprisingly to write that, given that the original mission called for only five test flights— I expected The dexterity was in mid-air for just under a minute, reaching a height of 33 feet (10 m) and crossing about 365 feet (111 m).

This isn’t the first time we’ve found out debris on Mars. In July, the Perseverance rover took photos of what looked like a packet of spaghetti marsAnd in April, Ingenuity took a photo of protective shield Perseverance helped land on Mars, which is now part of the red planet’s dusty landscape.