US space agency NASA has released audio about Martian winds and rock-focused laser sound, all captured by the Perseverance rover while making its first use of scientific instruments their solemnity.
The rover, developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the French National Space Studies Center, made the recordings. NASA released them Wednesday.
The instrument is mounted on the rover’s mast and features a 5.6-kilogram sensor head that can perform five types of analysis to study the geology of Mars and help scientists choose which rocks to choose. for the rover to sample for traces of microbial old life.
The probe fired laser beats at a target rock about three meters away, which can be heard on the recordings as clicking sounds. Scientists will be able to study the changes in the intensity of the sounds to obtain information about the physical structure of the targets and whether they are good candidates for closer analysis.
The recordings are part of system health checks which are carried out to ensure that all instruments are working properly.
Since the car-sized rover came to Mars on February 18, it has been conducting health checks on all of its systems and subsystems. Early data from SuperCam tests – including sounds from the Red Planet – have been interesting.
Scientists hope to find biosignatures rooted in sediment samples that Perseverance designed to extract from Martian rock for retrospective analysis on Earth.