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 the exploration of Mars.

As the Perseverance rover began to make its mark on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carried marked a first: the fringe, pings, and clicks of the robot’s six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain. .

“A lot of people, when they see the pictures, don’t appreciate that the wheels are made of metal,” said Vandi Verma, senior engineer and rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “When you are driving with these wheels over rocks, it is actually very noisy.”

More than 16 minutes of sounds from Perseverance’s 90-foot (27.3-meter) drive on March 7 were captured by Perseverance’s input, descent, and landing (EDL) microphone, which remains operational on the rover after its historic landing on February 18. The commercially available microphone was added to the rover to help the audience take the audience along as they land, but mission members are also eager to hear sounds from the surface.

“If I heard these sounds while driving my car, I would pull over and call for a tow,” said Dave Gruel, chief engineer of the EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem from March 2020. “But if you will. take a minute to think about what you hear and where it was recorded, that makes perfect sense. “

Two versions of the audio clip from the same player were released to the public on March 17. The first version features over 16 minutes of raw, unfiltered sounds from the rover traveling through Jezero Crater. You can hear the noise generated by the interaction of Perseverance’s mobility system (its wheels and suspension) with the surface, as well as a high-pitched scratching noise. The Perseverance engineering team continues to assess the source of the scratching noise, which may be either electromagnetic interference from one of the rover’s electronics boxes, or interactions between the mobility system and the Martian surface. The EDL microphone was not intended for surface operations and was subjected to limited testing in this configuration prior to launch.

The second version is a shorter compilation of sounds from the longer raw 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), processing them and editing them to filter out some of the noise.

This first sound from a reader across the Martian surface joins a growing playlist of sounds from Mars being sent back to Earth by Perseverance. A second microphone, part of the rover’s SuperCam instrument, previously picked up the sigh of the Martian wind and the rapid ticking sound of laser zapping rocks to reveal details of their structure and composition. This information will help scientists search the Jezero Crater for signs of ancient microscopic life, taking samples of rocks and sediment that will be returned to Earth by future missions.

The sounds from the SuperCam were part of a series of systems checks the rover performed, ranging from disassembling Perseverance’s massive robotic arm to its first weather observations using Mars’ Environmental Dynamics Analyzer.

The rover also searched for a suitable airfield for the Ingenuity Mars helicopter to attempt its first flight tests. Now that the right place has been found, the Perseverance and Ingenuity teams plan for the rover to deploy the helicopter, which will have 30 Martian days, or grounds (31 Earth days), to perform up to five flights of test.

And then the hunt for ancient life will begin in earnest, with Perseverance exploring land once thought to be covered in water. Between the rover’s 19 cameras and its two microphones, the experience will be rich in images and sounds. For Verma, who has helped “drive” NASA’s last four Martian rovers, plan their routes, and pass on instructions so they can take a day’s drive over unfamiliar terrain, the audio is more than cool. .

“The variations between Earth and Mars – we get a visual sense of that,” she said. “But sound is a whole other dimension: seeing the differences between Earth and Mars, and experiencing this environment up close.”