Ever wondered what it sounds admire to drive on Mars? The resolution entails clonks, squeaks, and a distressing amount of scratching.
The latter, in step with scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is confidently the final result of one thing admire electromagnetic interference from electronics within the Perseverance Rover as a replace of the rest extra wicked.
Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Digicam and Microphone subsystem, acknowledged: “If I heard these sounds driving my vehicle, I may maybe well maybe pull over and fetch in touch with for a tow,” ahead of mentioning that it all makes sense when one considers where the audio is coming from.
Absolutely, driving over the rugged floor of Mars may maybe well maybe be a comparatively noisy endeavour. We now beget merely never had the assorted to hear it till now.
The EDL microphone, an off-the-shelf unit, became not intended for floor operations nonetheless since it survived the 18 February landing, engineers outdated it to prefer the sounds made at some level of the rover’s 27.3-metre drive on 7 March. A 2d microphone captured the sound of the Martian wind and the ticking of the robot’s laser firing at rocks.
The recording is compensation for the shortage of sound at some level of Perseverance’s landing. To be ravishing, the video imagery of the descent coupled with the sound of the understandably furious scientists and engineers in the mission regulate room became extra than appropriate ample for us.
The six wheels beneath Perseverance were re-engineered following the abilities of sister rover Curiosity, which is restful trundling across the floor of Mars. “The wheels are fabricated from aluminium,” explained JPL, “with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for springy give a protect conclude to.”
And goodness, they invent seem to create the abnormal clank and bonk sound as the rover rolls its means across Mars. We may maybe perhaps beget to have faith JPL: “This provides a whole unique dimension to planetary exploration.”
Sounds aside, JPL additionally announced that the crew dreary the rover and its helicopter payload beget chosen the flight zone from where the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will are trying its first flight.
Right now attached to the stomach of Perseverance, the technology demonstrator has a diminutive test flight window of as a lot as 31 days. The first test flights are anticipated to happen no earlier than the first week of April. ®
Ever wondered what it sounds admire to drive on Mars? The resolution entails clonks, squeaks, and a distressing amount of scratching.
The latter, in step with scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), is confidently the final result of one thing admire electromagnetic interference from electronics within the Perseverance Rover as a replace of the rest extra wicked.
Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) Digicam and Microphone subsystem, acknowledged: “If I heard these sounds driving my vehicle, I may maybe well maybe pull over and fetch in touch with for a tow,” ahead of mentioning that it all makes sense when one considers where the audio is coming from.
Absolutely, driving over the rugged floor of Mars may maybe well maybe be a comparatively noisy endeavour. We now beget merely never had the assorted to hear it till now.
The EDL microphone, an off-the-shelf unit, became not intended for floor operations nonetheless since it survived the 18 February landing, engineers outdated it to prefer the sounds made at some level of the rover’s 27.3-metre drive on 7 March. A 2d microphone captured the sound of the Martian wind and the ticking of the robot’s laser firing at rocks.
The recording is compensation for the shortage of sound at some level of Perseverance’s landing. To be ravishing, the video imagery of the descent coupled with the sound of the understandably furious scientists and engineers in the mission regulate room became extra than appropriate ample for us.
The six wheels beneath Perseverance were re-engineered following the abilities of sister rover Curiosity, which is restful trundling across the floor of Mars. “The wheels are fabricated from aluminium,” explained JPL, “with cleats for traction and curved titanium spokes for springy give a protect conclude to.”
And goodness, they invent seem to create the abnormal clank and bonk sound as the rover rolls its means across Mars. We may maybe perhaps beget to have faith JPL: “This provides a whole unique dimension to planetary exploration.”
Sounds aside, JPL additionally announced that the crew dreary the rover and its helicopter payload beget chosen the flight zone from where the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter will are trying its first flight.
Right now attached to the stomach of Perseverance, the technology demonstrator has a diminutive test flight window of as a lot as 31 days. The first test flights are anticipated to happen no earlier than the first week of April. ®
