NASA recordings show what the ‘sound of Mars’ sounds like

Research knows a lot about Mars, but what does the Red Planet actually sound like? Shown by NASA’s “Perseverance” rover and two commercially available microphones.

Pasadena/Frankfurt – Mars is dry, dusty, windy and not a pleasant place for people. Space exploration knows that much. But what does it actually sound like on the Red Planet? What noises do you hear there? How do sounds spread in the thin atmosphere of Mars? For a long time, research could not answer these questions – and unofficially sent microphones to Mars. Two commercially available microphones have been installed on NASA’s “Perseverance” rover. One of the microphones was attached to the rover chassis, and the second microphone was located on the mast “Perseverance”, where the so-called “SuperCam” is also located.

NASA’s spacecraft, which landed on Mars in February 2021, has now captured the “Mars sound” for nearly five hours and has sent the images back to Earth. You can hear the wind blowing, you can hear the metal rover wheels over the rocky ground or the humming engines cranking the rover boom.

“It’s like you’re standing there yourself,” NASA quotes planetary scientist Baptiste Chade, who is examining the recordings at the French Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planets, in a statement. “The sounds of Mars have strong bass vibrations, so when you put on the headphones you really feel it,” explains Chide.

NASA shows the sound of Mars: what does the Red Planet sound like?

But researchers aren’t just interested in hearing sounds on Mars – they can also glean new knowledge from these sounds. How do sounds spread in the atmosphere of Mars? The small helicopter “Creativity”, which arrived on Mars with the rover “Perseverance” and since then has flown several times over the surface of Mars, helped researchers answer this question.

Rover microphones picked up the rotor noise of the helicopter on its fourth flight on April 30, and, according to NASA, allowed researchers to rule out two out of three models for how the noise would spread on Mars.

The mere fact that the microphones were able to record the rotor noises of a Mars helicopter seems to have surprised some researchers, NASA reports. They assumed that the higher tones would be difficult to hear in the very thin Martian atmosphere.

NASA’s ‘Perseverance’ rover: microphone points to Mars’ atmosphere

And the activity of the Mars rover has taken researchers a step further: “Perseverance” shoots lasers at stones to analyze camera evaporation. The microphones have already recorded more than 25,000 shots of these laser shots and have also provided researchers with new knowledge. Some images allow scientists to conclude that there are so-called “micro-perturbations” – short-term changes in the atmosphere of Mars.

But what results do researchers have now when it comes to the “sound of Mars”? “Sounds on Mars are being transmitted farther than we thought,” explains SuperCam scientist Nina Lanza. “It shows how important it is to conduct field research.”

Mars Sounds Should Help NASA Maintain Probe

The noise recorded by microphones on Mars has a very practical side effect for teams on Earth as well as all the science: If enough data is collected in the future, the noise of the Mars rover should be used for maintenance. According to NASA, the microphone on the chassis is well positioned to pick up noise from tires and other systems.

At the US space agency, the project is compared to a mechanic who listens to a car’s engine in order to detect malfunctions. “We like to hear this noise regularly,” explains Vandi Verma, chief engineer for “perseverance” robot operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and confirms that people on Earth are already monitoring “changes in noise patterns” for the experimental vehicle in order to avoid problems early on. to get to know her.

NASA’s “Perseverent” rover is supposed to send samples of Martian soil to Earth

The ‘persevere’ rover has the big task of finding signs of past microbiological life. It will also classify the geology and early climate of the red planet and prepare for future human exploration of Mars through technical demonstrations such as the “Creativity” helicopter or the “MOXIE” experiment. Another important mission of the rover is to collect and store suitable soil samples for a later Mars mission. In the future, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Organization ESA is to return the samples to Earth, where they will be examined by humans.

Recently, the “Persevering” Mars rover made a key note: Even before it first turned away from its landing site, it sent evidence back to Earth that Jezero crater was once a lake fed by a river. (tab)