NASA’s newest Mars rover has sent back the first-ever recording of driving on the Red Planet – and it features a mysterious “scratching” noise that’s left scientists baffled.
The audio clip also includes the eerie sound of grinding, clanking and banging that by Earth standards would be pretty worrisome.
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The noises made by Perseverance’s six metal wheels and suspension on the first test drive two weeks ago are part of a 16-minute raw audio feed released Wednesday by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“If I heard these sounds driving my car, I’d pull over and call for a tow,” Dave Gruel, an engineer on the rover team, said in a statement.
“But if you take a minute to consider what you’re hearing and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense.”
The driving audio contains an unexpected high-pitched scratching noise, according to Nasa. Engineers are trying to figure out what the sound is.
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Perseverance – the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent to Mars – landed near an ancient river delta on February 18 to search for signs of past life.
Samples will be taken from the most promising rocks for eventual return to Earth.
The rover carries two microphones.
One already has captured the sounds of wind and rock-zapping lasers, the other was meant to record the descent and landing.
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This second mike didn’t pick up any sounds of the rover’s arrival at Mars, but managed to record the first test drive March 4.
Before it starts drilling into rocks for core samples, Perseverance will drop off an experimental tag-along helicopter, named Ingenuity.
The helicopter will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet sometime next month.
Perseverance’s microphones are stashed on its SuperCam instrument, which sits atop the rover’s remote sensing mast.
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Over the course of the two-year mission, scientists hope to use the rover’s audio recordings to analyse Martian rock and soil.
The six-wheeled machine is equipped with a laser that can hit targets up to 20ft (7m) away.
Some zaps sound slightly louder than others, providing information on the physical structure of the targets, such as its relative hardness.
SuperCam was developed jointly by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories.
Perseverance – What’s on board?
Perseverance boasts a total of 19 cameras and two microphones, and carries seven scientific instruments.
- Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL)
An X-ray “ray gun” that will help scientists investigate the composition of Martian rock.
2. Radar Imager for Mars’ subsurface experiment (RIMFAX)
A ground-penetrating radar that will image buried rocks, meteorites, and even possible underground water sources up to a depth of 10 metres (33ft).
3. Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)
A bunch of sensors that will take readings of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, and other atmospheric conditions.
4. Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE)
An experiment that will convert Martian carbon dioxide into oxygen. A scaled-up version could be used in future to provide Martian colonists with breathable air.
5. SuperCam
A suite of instruments for measuring the makeup of rocks and regolith at a distance
6. Mastcam-Z
A camera system capable of taking “3D” images by combining two or more photos into one.
7. Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC)
From Baker Street to Mars: Sherloc contains an ultraviolet laser that will investigate Martian rock for organic compounds.
The instrument delivers data to the French Space Agency’s operations centre in Toulouse.
Speaking earlier this month following the recovery of Perseverance’s first audio recordings, Naomi Murdoch, a researcher at the ISAE-SUPAERO aerospace engineering school in Toulouse, could barely contain her excitement.
“The sounds acquired are remarkable quality,” she said.
“It’s incredible to think that we’re going to do science with the first sounds ever recorded on the surface of Mars.”
Perseverance rover records sounds of its laser zapping a rock
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In other news, water that once flowed over the surface of Mars is now trapped within its crust, a Nasa-funded study revealed this week.
Nasa has announced that it is accepting applications for wannabe space explorers who wish to fire their names to the Red Planet.
And, Perseverance revealed stunning video and audio recordings from the surface of the Red Planet last month.
What do you make of the rover video? Let us know in the comments!
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
