Mars heatshields as shovels
The outer heatshield material is essentially cork dust mixed with adhesive. It's a bit like soft plastic. The structural material backing it is aluminum honeycomb. The whole assembly is quite strong towards the aerodynamic forces it was designed for. I suspect it crumbled up like a stomped-on aluminum can when it hit the surface of Mars. It would be ***VERY INTERESTING*** to get a close look at it. Because it would crumble up, there's a good chance that pieces of it would be intact enough for inspection. We could learn how much of the heat shield ablated and spallated (there should have been very little ablation and spallation).
Gary