Another First: Perseverance Captures the Sounds of Driving on Mars

If there's one thing it's not that's quiet , the video below contains 90 seconds of clunks and bangs as Percy sets off for a little drive on Mars.


Kinda wish they'd put a little horn on Percy , just for effect.

As the Perseverance rover began to make tracks on the surface of Mars, a sensitive microphone it carries scored a first: the bangs, pings, and rattles of the robot’s six wheels as they rolled over Martian terrain.

“A lot of people, when they see the images, don’t appreciate that the wheels are metal,” said Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “When you’re driving with these wheels on rocks, it’s actually very noisy.”

More than 16 minutes of sounds from Perseverance’s 90-foot (27.3-meter) drive on March 7 were captured by Perseverance’s entry, descent, and landing (EDL) microphone, which remains operational on the rover after its historic touchdown on Feb. 18. The off-the-shelf microphone was added to the rover to help take the public along for the ride during touchdown, but mission members have been eager to hear the sounds from the surface, too.

“If I heard these sounds driving my car, I’d pull over and call for a tow,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020’s EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem. “But if you take a minute to consider what you’re hearing and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense.”
mars.nasa.gov...

There's also a full 16 minute recording for anyone interested located in the link above.

Ugh, I wish we had some high def video to go along with the recordings. BUT this is still amazing to my ears

a reply to: gortex

It's amazing to hear these sounds. Apparently, they're not sure what the scratching sound is and are investigating.

I hope Percy hasn't run over a Martian and is dragging it along for the ride.

Sort that reverb out NASA
But cool how you can hear the grit/sand under the wheels-sort of gives you an idea of what it would be like to walk there.
I think i can also hear the odd "wheel skip" where a wheel loses traction in the grit.

I hope we get to hear the sound of the helicopter soon.

a reply to: gortex

Sounds like a squeaky metal bucket.👍😊 but the most advanced and distant kind.

Sounds like rubber bands or banjo at 38 secs.

originally posted by: gortex

Kinda wish they'd put a little horn on Percy , just for effect.

I was kinda hoping for something like this

I think they need some quieter tires and better shocks on that thing. A set of rubber tires would make it quieter too. The Martians will here that coming from half a mile away, how are we going to get pictures of little green men if that thing can't sneak up on them?

Kind of boring, sounds like it would sound here on earth in a rocky sandy area. Not really exciting in the least.

a reply to: rickymouse

here on earth in a rocky sandy area

The fact that it isn't here on earth in a rocky sandy area is what makes it exciting , in the grand scale of things it's just sound waves but what those sound waves represent is what's important.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: rickymouse

here on earth in a rocky sandy area

The fact that it isn't here on earth in a rocky sandy area is what makes it exciting , in the grand scale of things it's just sound waves but what those sound waves represent is what's important.

All that this means to me is that there is some kind of atmosphere there, sound doesn't travel in a vaccum from what I remember. Wind needs substance to be felt too, there is some kind of air there.

a reply to: rickymouse

The atmosphere is considerably less than that of Earth and made up mostly of C02 , Percy saw its first Dust Devil a few days ago.

Either NASA are just appalling at giving us good, interesting, easy to find coverage of their rovers and the thousands of pictures they take. Or they’re deliberately drip feeding confusing and pointless rubbish.

I mean Percy is an exciting event. Mars should be something we’re all enthused to see. This should be amazing, but it’s boring as all hell.

Trying to navigate the NASA image library is, frankly, a nightmare.

If they wanted to capture the public imagination they easily could. I guess they don’t. But why?

Anyway, those sounds are like something recorded in a room; a little to dull and echo laden for me.

Kinda wish they'd put a little horn on Percy , just for effect.

Yessssss
The one from the 69 Road Runner...

So I guess this answers the question if a tree falls on mars does it make a sound? I enjoy the exploration of mars. For me it stirs so many thoughts and questions. Many with no answers but it's fun to come up with my own. For instance, how many times have humans landed on Mars through the ages? Which brings to mind how many human civilizations have come and gone on earth. Did we come from Mars. If there were/are Martians did they come from Earth, Venus? Not that I commit myself to believe in such things but I really enjoy the contemplation of them. One of the things that I think is amazing is how they landed these rovers on the surface of Mars. The process has to be one of the most incredible things engineers have done in our known history. If we as humans quit trying to come up with better ways to kill each other and spend that energy on bettering ourselves in body and spirit we could go as far as our imaginations can take us. Kinda sad really. Anyway, the exploration of Mars is cool man.

Combine this with the sound of the laser and the martian wind, and we have a very cinematic sci-fi scene, albeit in real world.

NASA have given April 11th as the expected date for Ingenuity Helicopter's test flight , all being well data will arrive the following day .... hope we get video.

Come fly with us. #MarsHelicopter is preparing to do something that's never been done: controlled, powered flight on another planet. Takeoff is now slated for no earlier than April 11, with data arriving on Earth on April 12
twitter.com...

originally posted by: Gothmog

Kinda wish they'd put a little horn on Percy , just for effect.

Yessssss
The one from the 69 Road Runner...

MeeMeep