The Perseverance Rover captures the sounds of driving on Mars

NASA’s latest rover recorded audio of itself crunching across the surface of the Red Planet, adding a whole new dimension to Mars exploration.

When the Perseverance rover started making tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the hitting, pinging, and rattling of the robot’s six wheels as they rolled across Mars’ terrain .

“A lot of people don’t know the wheels are metal when they see the images,” said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover operator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “When you drive on rocks with these wheels, it’s actually really noisy.”

More than 16 minutes of sounds from Perseverance’s 90-foot (27.3-meter) ride on March 7 were picked up by Perseverance’s entry, descent and landing (EDL) microphone, which remains operational on the rover after its historic landing on February 18. The standard microphone was added to the rover to take the audience for the ride during touchdown, but mission members were also keen to hear the sounds from the surface.

“If I heard these noises driving in my car, I would stop and call a tug,” said Dave Gruel, chief engineer for Mars 2020’s camera and microphone EDL subsystem. you hear it and where it is recorded it makes perfect sense. “

Two versions of the audio clip from the same drive were released to the public on March 17th. The first version contains more than 16 minutes of raw, unfiltered sounds from the rover traveling through Jezero Crater. In it, the sound generated by the interaction of Perseverance’s mobility system (the wheels and suspension) with the surface can be heard, along with a high-pitched scratch noise. The Perseverance engineering team continues to evaluate the source of the scratchy sound. This could be electromagnetic interference from one of the rover’s electronics boxes or interactions between the mobility system and the surface of Mars. The EDL microphone was not intended for surface machining and had to undergo limited testing in this configuration before launch.

The second version is a shorter compilation of sounds from the longer unedited recording of the disc. For this 90-second version, NASA engineers combined three segments of the raw audio file (sections 0: 20-0: 45, 6: 40-7: 10 and 14: 30-15: 00), processed and edited them into a filter. part of the sound.

This first audio of a ride across the surface of Mars joins a growing playlist of Martian sounds beamed back to Earth by Perseverance. A second microphone, part of the rover’s SuperCam instrument, previously captured the sighs of the Martian wind and the rapid tapping sound of the instrument’s laser beams to reveal details of their structure and composition. Such information will help scientists search the Jezero Crater for signs of ancient microscopic life, taking samples of rock and sediment to bring back to Earth by future missions.

The SuperCam sounds were part of a series of system checks the rover has undergone, ranging from unloading Perseverance’s massive robotic arm to making its first weather observations using the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer.

The rover was also looking for a suitable airfield for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to conduct its first flight tests. Now that the right spot has been found, the Perseverance and Ingenuity teams are making plans for the rover to deploy the helicopter, which will have 30 Martian days or sols (31 Earth days) to complete up to five test flights.

And then the hunt for the old life will begin in earnest, with Perseverance to explore terrain that was thought to be covered with water. Between the 19 cameras and the two microphones of the rover, the experience is packed with images and sounds. For Verma, who has helped “pilot” NASA’s last four Mars rovers, planned their routes, and sent instructions so they can take a day’s drive over unfamiliar territory, the audio is more than just cool.

“The variations between Earth and Mars – we have a visual sense for that,” she said. “But sound is a completely different dimension: seeing the differences between the Earth and Mars, and experiencing that environment better.”