Rover “Perseverance” sends audio recording of Mars voyage

The approximately 16-minute sound recording was recorded by a microphone a few days ago during the rover’s approximately 27-meter journey.

“When you drive over stones with these bikes, it’s very loud,” said NASA engineer Vandi Verma. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the wheels of “Perseverance” (in German: stamina) are made of metal. “If I heard these noises in my car, I would stop and call the towing service,” added Nasa colleague Dave Gruel. “But when you think about what you’re listening to and where it was recorded, it makes total sense.” The rover had previously sent sound recordings of its landing and of trying out its laser to Earth, among other things.

“Perseverance”, weighing around 1,000 kilograms and the size of a small car, was touched down on February 18 after 203 days of flight with a risky maneuver in a dry lake on Mars. The rover will examine this lake with a diameter of around 45 kilometers over the next two years.

Development and construction of the approximately 2.5 billion dollars (about 2.2 billion euros) vehicle had taken eight years. Its mission is to search for traces of previous microbial life on Mars and to study the planet’s climate and geology.