PLASTIC ON MARS? Issues with the claim that this would be a piece of plastic fallen of the MSL Curiosity. My counter claims: - Plastic does not survive the descend through the atmosphere. It would instantly melt. - NASA would not allow pieces of anything to remain on the space craft before take-off, as this could obviously damage the space-craft. Imagine this were a piece of scrap metal overlooked by inspection. No matter how small, any piece could mean the end of the mission due to the velocity of an impact. Therefore multiple thorough inspections before launch are mandatory, and any piece of crap would have been removed from the craft, period. - If this were a piece of plastic essential to the functioning of the craft, the robot would have experienced problems by now.