Every new sound sent back by the rover is an exciting first, as none of the previous missions to Mars had microphones.
As the rover’s six metal wheels move across the Mars surface, the sound of rumbling, ringing, clapping and creaking can be heard.
“Many people, when they see the images, do not appreciate that the wheels are metal,” Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and car driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. “When you ride these wheels on rocks, it’s actually very noisy.”
The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Pasadena, California, manages the Perseverance Rover mission.
The new audio, shared by the agency on Wednesday, was picked up by a sensitive microphone on the Rover on March 7 during a 90-foot ride. The same microphone was used during the successful demonstration, descent and landing of the Rover on February 18 and remains functional.
Two versions of the audio were shared.
“If I had heard these noises driving in my car, I would have pulled out and towed a tow,” said Dave Gruel, chief JPL engineer for the Rover’s camera and microphone subsystem, in a statement. “But if you take a moment to consider what you hear and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense.”
Since landing, the rover has gone through for its systems and tools to make sure endurance is ready for a voyage of discovery. The rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars and collect monsters that will return to Earth through future missions.
Before perseverance began with its scientific mission, the driving force was carried out to find a helicopter platform for another component of the mission: the Ingenuity helicopter. The 4-pound helicopter will be the first to fly on another planet.
The rover and helicopter crews found a suitable place to put the helicopter down. Once Ingenuity is released from the robber’s belly, he will have to charge himself using sunlight and survive the icy Mars nights before attempting up to five test flights over 31 days.
The first flight will only last for about 20 seconds as Ingenuity hovers over its helicopter flight, and more flights will be planned after the research team has the first attempt.
Perseverance cameras and microphones can record images, videos and sounds of these test flights – and the helicopter also carries a camera to share aerial photos of Jezero Crater.
Once the Ingenuity experiment is over, perseverance will begin to explore the ancient lakebed. And along with the images captured by the Rover’s 19 cameras, sound from its two microphones offers a unique perspective on the Rover’s journey.
“The variations between Earth and Mars – we visually have a feel for it,” Verma said. “But sound is a whole other dimension: seeing the differences between Earth and Mars and experiencing that environment up close.”