NASA’s latest rover recorded the sound of itself creeping over the surface of the Red Planet, adding a whole new dimension to Mars’ exploration.
As the Perseverance rover began making scratches on the surface of Mars, a sensory microphone carrying it received its first scratch: the robot’s six-wheeled brakes, pings, and rattles as they crossed land Martian.
“A lot of people, when they see the images, don’t realize that the wheels are metal,” said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab in Southern California. “When you’re driving with these wheels on rocks, it’s very noisy. ”
More than 16 minutes of noise from a 90-foot (27.3-meter) Perseverance driver on March 7 was captured by Perseverance’s entry, rescue and landing (EDL) microphone, which is still working on the rover after its historic tour on 18 February. The off-the-shelf microphone has been added to the rover to help get the public on track during friction, but members of the rover have been keen to hear the sounds from the surface as well.
“If I could hear these sounds driving my car, I would pull over and call for more,” said Dave Gruel, chief engineer for the EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem at Mars 2020. “But if take a moment to reflect on what you hear and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense. ”
Two versions of the audio clip of the same driver were released to the public on March 17th. The first version features over 16 minutes of raw, unaltered sounds of the rover roaming Jezero Crater. Recorded, the sound emanating from the interaction of the Perseverance movement system (the wheels and the suspension) with the surface is heard, along with the sound of high-pitched scratching. The Perseverance engineering team is continuing to evaluate the source of the scratch sound, which may be either electromagnetic input from one of the rover’s electrical boxes or an interaction between the movement system and surface. Martian. The EDL microphone was not intended for surface operation and had little testing in this situation prior to its launch.
The second version is a shorter collection of sounds from the driver’s longest raw recording. For this 90-second version, NASA engineers combined three sections from the raw audio file (sections 0: 20-0: 45, 6: 40-7: 10, and 14: 30-15: 00), processed and processed them. edit to filter out some of the sound.
This first sound of driving over the Martian surface comes with a growing playlist of Mars sounds transported back to Earth from Perseverance. A second microphone, part of the rover’s SuperCam instrument, raised the previous Martian wind sigh and the rapid ticking sound of the instrument’s laser-twisted rocks to reveal details about their structure and construction. Such information will help scientists as they study Jezero Crater for signs of the life of an ancient microscope, taking samples of rock and sediment to return to Earth with future missions.
The SuperCam sounds were part of a series of systems reviews the rover has gone through, ranging from lowering the Perseverance giant artificial arm to making a first-hand look at the weather using the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer.
The rover has also been finding a suitable airfield for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to test the first flight tests. Now that the right place has been found, the Sustainability and Innovation teams are making plans to install the helicopter rover, which will have 30 Martian days, or sols (31 days on Earth), to complete up to five test trips.
And then the hunt for old life begins earnestly, with perseverance exploring land that was once covered in water. Between the rover’s 19 cameras and its two microphones, the experience will be full of sights and sounds. For Verma, who has helped “drive” NASA’s last four Mars rovers, plan their routes and transmit directions so they can take a day off over land Without recording, the audio is more than just cool.
“The changes between Earth and Mars – we have a clear vision for that,” she said. “But sound is a completely different way: to see the differences between Earth and Mars, and to get to know that environment more closely.”
More about the mission
The main goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology, involving the discovery of signs of microbial old life. The rover will mark the geology of the planet and the climate of the past, pave the way for human study of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect Martian rock and regolith and accumulate (broken rock and dust).
NASA’s subsequent missions, in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and bring them back to Earth for miniature space. in-depth study.
The Mars 2020 Sustainability mission is part of NASA’s approach to Moon to Mars, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for a human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, and manages the operation of the Perseverance rover.
For more about Sustainability:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
Contact news media
DC Agle
Jet Dedication Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Gray Hautaluoma / Joshua Handal
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1501 / 202-358-2307
[email protected]/[email protected]
Written by Pat Brennan