Martian rover sends back ‘overwhelming’ video, audio from the Red Planet

Martian rover sends back ‘overwhelming’ video, audio from the Red Planet

3 years ago
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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/martian-rover-sends-back-overwhelming-video-audio-red-planet

Just four martian days after touching down on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover has sent back its first video of its new home: a 1-minute arabesque of color and motion captured from four on-board cameras, as the car-size rover dangles from its rocket-propelled descent vehicle, a red-and-white parachute snaps into place, and the pitted surface of Mars comes slowly into view, dark canyons giving way to ripples of dust that look like giant, rust-colored dunes (see video, above).

But perhaps even more thrilling, an unexpected gift arrived along with the video and the thousands of new images that were downloaded over the weekend: the first sound recording taken from the surface of Mars. The recording, captured 1 day after landing by an on-board microphone, features the whine of the rover, followed by a gust of martian wind drumming gently against the microphone. Hearing that sound was “overwhelming,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the mission’s entry, descent, and landing cameras, at a NASA event announcing the new video and images. “We’re just beginning to do amazing things on the surface of Mars.”