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Mars Rover's Mic Gets News Sounds Of Martian Winds

NASA's SuperCam get installed on the Mars Perseverance Rover. Photo: NASA / Los Alamos National Laboratory
NASA's SuperCam get installed on the Mars Perseverance Rover. Photo: NASA / Los Alamos National Laboratory

NASA’s Mars rover is getting the first sounds of Martian wind using a microphone mounted to the robot's mast.

The team responsible for Perseverance’s SuperCam instrument started unpacking the boom arm and fired up the on-board microphone for the first time. The hardware captured sounds of Martian wind from the rover’s home in Jezero crater


NASA · First Audio Recording of Sounds on Mars

The SuperCam will help the rover identify rocks on the surface by firing lasers at them and using the microphone to listen to the sounds. Scientists can use the acoustical data to help determine what the rock is made of.

Perseverance is looking for ancient signs of life on the Martian surface. Scientists say Jezero crater was once an ancient lake and a good spot to look for evidence of past Martian organisms.

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Brendan Byrne is WMFE's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the WMFE newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing WMFE's internship program.

Byrne also hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration.