Decoding the hidden message in Perseverance parachute with R

perseverance.R

library(tidyverse)
options(warn = -1) # suppress warnings

# read in the rings as character strings
ring <- data.frame(inner_ring = "00000001000000000001000001001000000001010001111111111111111111111111111111111111",
           middle_ring_first = "00000011010000001001000000011100000010000000010100000001100100011111111111111111",
           middle_ring_second = "00000101000000001000000000100100000011100000000111000001001100011111111111111111")

end <- seq(10, 80, by = 10) # create vector of upper bound for each chunk of 10 bits

ring %>%
  pivot_longer(cols = 1:3, names_to = "ring", values_to = "char") %>%
  separate(col = char, into = paste0("chunk ", 1:8), sep = end) %>% # split in chunks of 10 bits
  mutate(across(starts_with("chunk"), strtoi, base = 2), # convert binary string to integer
         across(starts_with("chunk"), ~ . + 64), # add 64 to get ascii code
         across(starts_with("chunk"), gtools::chr)) # return character corresp to ascii code

The output is: