An image showing the simulation of the landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the planet Mars, where it will look for signs of past microbial life, cache rock and soil samples, and prepare for future human exploration, is livestreamed on the Piccadilly Lights screen in central London, on February 18, 2021. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP)
WASHINGTON — The US space agency NASA on Monday released the first audio from Mars, a faint crackling recording of a gust of wind captured by the Perseverance rover.
NASA also released the first video of last week’s landing of the rover, which is on a mission to search for signs of past life on the Red Planet.
A microphone did not work during the rover’s descent to the surface, but it was able to capture audio once it landed on Mars.
NASA engineers played a 60-second recording.
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“What you hear there 10 seconds in is an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth,” said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the camera and microphone system on Perseverance.
The high-definition video clip, lasting three minutes and 25 seconds, shows the deployment of a red-and-white parachute with a 70.5-foot-wide (21.5-meter-wide) canopy.
