Perseverance robot unveils new audio recordings from Mars

It has been three weeks since the Perseverance robot landed on Mars. On board, the SuperCam instrument continues its rock analysis work and has sent new data from the red planet to Earth.

If the first sounds had been sent the day after the rover landed on February 18, new audio recordings were transmitted by NASA to the French CNES (National Center for Space Studies) on Wednesday.

They are thus to be distinguished from previous recordings, presented on February 22 by NASA, then obtained via the microphone present on board the rover, the descent microphone. You could hear the Martian winds there. This time, the sounds were picked up by the microphone placed on the SuperCam scientific instrument (made in France), on the twelfth day of its mission. Clicks can be heard, corresponding to the noise of the rover’s laser when it hits a Martian rock for analysis.

“You are listening to the first audio recordings of the laser strikes on Mars. These rhythmic tapping sounds heard through the microphone of my SuperCam instrument have different intensities that can help my team understand the structure of the rocks around me. NASA tweeted.

New data that confirms that the SuperCam instrument is in “very good health”, as announced by co-designer Sylvestre Maurice, scientific manager at the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), during a press point broadcast on YouTube on Wednesday.