NASA's Perseverance Rover Has Captured Sound On Mars. Listen In

Perseverance Rover is 1st spacecraft to record sounds using commercial microphones. It recorded almost 5 hrs of wind eruptions, rover wheels traversing over Martian surface, sound of whirring motors

An illustration of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover indicating the location of its two microphones | Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

New Delhi: NASA's Perseverance mission has successfully captured sounds on Mars. The Perseverance Rover has recorded almost five hours of Martian wind eruptions, rover wheels traversing over the Martian surface, and the sound of whirring motors, with the help of two microphones aboard the six-wheeled spacecraft. 

This is the first spacecraft to have captured Martian sounds using dedicated, commercial-grade microphones. One microphone is equipped at the base frame of the rover, while the second microphone is present on the rover's mast. The first microphone stays fixed onto the port side of the rover. The second mic complements the investigations of rocks and Martian atmosphere carried out by the SuperCam laser instrument of Perseverance. 

Sounds on Mars are different from those on Earth because the Martian atmosphere attenuates at higher frequencies, says Justin Maki, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. So, one will hear much lower frequencies and isolated sounds on Mars.

You can listen to the Martian sound here.

Fascinating Space Microphones

SuperCam first destroys rocks and soil with a laser, and then analyses the resulting vapour with a camera. For every target, the laser pulses up to hundreds of times, and this provides the SuperCam microphone many opportunities to record the zapping sounds. The mic has captured more than 25,000 laser shots. This information will help scientists learn about rock material properties. 

The SuperCam mic's recordings are very important as they provide clues about changes in the Martian atmosphere. This is because sound travels through vibrations in the air. The mic monitors minute shifts in the air, also known as "microturbulence". The wind sensors in the Martian Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) are complemented by the mic.

SuperCam's microphone provides information about Mars' wind speed, pressure, pressure and temperature at a rate of 20,000 times per second. 

The mast microphone also helps scientists understand the mechanism of sound propagation on Mars. Scientists had not expected to hear higher-pitched sounds on Mars because the planet's atmosphere is much less dense than that of Earth. Some had thought that they would not hear anything at all, and were surprised when the mast microphone captured the Ingenuity helicopter's buzzing rotors. The mic recorded these sounds during the helicopter's fourth flight, on April 30. 

Nina Lanza, a SuperCam scientist, said that sound on Mars carries much farther than they had thought, according to a NASA statement. 

Spacecraft Maintenance Using Percy's Microphones

The microphones also facilitate spacecraft maintenance and aid in checking spacecraft performance.

The microphone located at the rover's base, called the chassis mic, records sounds of Percy's wheels and other internal systems. This data will help scientists determine disturbances such as an additional current going to a particular wheel. Thus, the chassis mic helps scientists understand the state of health of the instruments.