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The inset image shows a close-up of the EDL microphone on the Perseverance rover.
NASA / JPL-Caltech
How does space travel sound? If you are NASA’s Perseverance rover on the road to Mars, it sounds like a slight hum.
The next-generation rover is equipped with a microphone designed to capture entry, descent and landing (EDL) sounds once it reaches the red planet in February 2021. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) released an audio file Wednesday that provides a sense of what the rover is hearing on its interplanetary journey.
The 60-second SoundCloud clip is from Oct 19 during the rover’s EDL camera and microphone system checks.
That hum comes from the rover’s heat rejection fluid pump. “Located on the starboard rear side of the Perseverance, the pump is part of the rover’s thermal system, which will help maintain operating temperatures for vehicle components even on the coldest winter nights,” JPL said in a statement Wednesday.
“Apologizing to the person who came up with the tagline for Alien, I guess it’s safe to say that no one in space could hear you scream, but they can hear your heat rejection fluid pump,” said Dave Gruel, chief engineer for the camera subsystem. and EDL microphone of the rover at the JPL. Gruel said the microphone was able to pick up pump hums through mechanical vibrations.
The Perseverance team is thrilled with this little buzz because it means the mic system is working properly and should be able to record what Gruel describes as “the sound and fury of a Mars landing”.
Perseverance will embark on a cutting-edge mission to search for signs of ancient microbial life and collect rock and dust samples for later return to Earth. It also brings an experimental helicopter called Ingenuity.
Circle February 18 on your calendar for the rover’s appointment with its Martian fate. Hopefully, we could get spectacular audio of his arrival.
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