Nasa Mars rover: The clanking sound of Perseverance's wheels

geemong

Nasa Mars rover: The clanking sound of Perseverance's
wheels



Nasa's Perseverance rover has 鉆�鉊�鉊啤��鉊� 3 鉊抉葩鉊�鉊菽��鉊耜腦鉆�鉊�鉊毯��鉊﹤��鉊抉葡鉊﹤葵鉊�鉊詮��鉆�鉊�鉆�鉊�鉊� Slotxo extended
its Martian playlist.

After sending back sounds of the wind and the zaps of its laser, the robot has just
recorded the noise coming from its metal wheels as they clank across the planet's
rocky surface.

"If I heard these sounds driving my car, I'd pull over and call for a tow," joked Dave
Gruel, a lead engineer working the rover's cameras and microphones.

Perseverance has two recording devices.

They were included on the robot to give the public a keener sense of what Mars
is like, but they also have some scientific value. The nature of the sounds says
something about the physical properties of the surface - how hard or how soft
the rocks are, for example.

The newly released recording was made during a 27m drive by Perseverance
on 7 March. The media at the top of this page is an abridged version of a sequence
that runs for 16 minutes in raw form.

Sounds come across a little differently on Mars compared with Earth, due to
the much reduced air pressure and contrasting composition. The sounds can seem
somewhat muffled. The noise from the wheels is certainly loud, though.

In amongst the clatter, engineers say they can hear a kind of scratching noise,
the source of which they are still trying to identify.

They are not sure if this is electromagnetic interference from one of the rover's
electronics boxes or just another aspect of the general rattle that is produced in
the interaction between the robot's mobility system and the surface.