Hear the sounds of Mars: How NASA records audio from Perseverance rover

NASA has released details of sound recordings taken by the Perseverance rover on the planet Mars.

NASA released details of the microphones installed on the rover spacecraft this week, along with a video featuring several sound clips. Longer versions of the clips are available on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover website.

Nearly five hours of wind gusts, motor sounds and rover wheels traversing the ground beneath them have been recorded. The sounds give scientists a new dimension through which to observe the Red Planet.

"It's like you're really standing there," Baptiste Chide, a planetary scientist who studies data from the microphones at L'Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie in France, said on the NASA website. "Martian sounds have strong bass vibrations, so when you put on headphones, you can really feel it. I think microphones will be an important asset to future Mars and solar system science."

There are two microphones aboard the six-wheeled rover, one on the port side and one on its mast as part of the SuperCam instrument. The SuperCam studies rocks and soil by zapping them with a laser before analyzing the resulting vapour with a camera.