Nasa’s Perseverance rover has expanded its Martian playlist.
After returning sounds from the wind and the zaps from its laser, the robot has just recorded the sound that came from its metal wheels as they ringed across the rocky surface of the planet.
“If I heard these noises driving in my car, I would stop and call for a tug,” joked Dave Gruel, a chief engineer operating the rover’s cameras and microphones.
Perseverance has two recording devices.
They are applied to the robot to give the public a better idea of what Mars looks like, but they also have some scientific value. The nature of the sounds says something about the physical properties of the surface – how hard or how soft the rocks are, for example.
The newly released recording was taken during a 27 meter ride through Perseverance on March 7th. The media at the top of this page is a condensed version of a series that runs in raw form for 16 minutes.
Due to the greatly reduced air pressure and contrasting composition, sounds on Mars appear slightly different than on Earth. Sounds may seem slightly muffled. However, the noise from the wheels is certainly loud.
In between the clatter, engineers say they can hear some kind of scratchy sound, the source of which they are still trying to identify.
They’re not sure if this is electromagnetic interference from one of the rover’s electronics boxes or just another aspect of the general chatter produced in the interaction between the robot’s mobility system and the surface.
Perseverance landed in the Jezero crater on Mars on Feb. 18. Since then, most of the time has been spent testing all of its systems, tools and instruments.
A direct target is a helicopter experiment. The rover has brought a small helicopter from Earth.
The vehicle searches for a suitable area where the 2kg device, called Ingenuity, can be safely placed on the ground. The plane is currently hanging under Perseverance’s belly.
NASA says engineers have now identified a likely location that they will discuss in more detail in a briefing next Tuesday.
The team behind Ingenuity will be given 30 Martian days, or sols (31 Earth days), to conduct up to five test flights.
Once completed, the main mission can begin. Perseverance is on Mars to look for signs of past life and to collect rocks that can be returned to Earth later this decade.
An early destination for the robot is the remains of a delta – a structure made up of the silt and sand dumped by a river when it enters a wider body of water.
In Jezero’s case, this wider body was most likely a crater-wide lake that existed billions of years ago.