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NASA has also released the first video of a Martian landing to search for possible traces of ancient life on Mars.
VIDEO: Perseverance Rover’s Descent and Touchdown on Mars (Official NASA Video)
The device’s microphone did not work when it landed on the planet’s surface, but the sounds of Mars were recorded later after landing.
NASA engineers released a one-minute video
“What you hear for 10 seconds is actually a gust of wind on the surface of Mars, captured with a microphone and sent to us here on Earth,” said Dave Gruel, chief engineer for Perseverance’s camera and microphone system, at a press conference.
VIDEO: Listen to the Martian wind! The first sounds of the Perseverance Rover captured
People had the first opportunity to hear the low thunder of Martian winds in 2018, when NASA’s InSight probe captured vibrations in blasts from the Red Planet’s atmosphere, but that sound was not directly recorded.
At that time, NASA published 3 min. 25 sec. The high definition video of the 21.5 meter diameter red and white parachute played out as allowed by the camera.
The record also shows the separation of the shield that protected Perseverance from the heat as it entered the atmosphere of Mars at high speed. The very moment of the Martian’s descent was also filmed, when the device touched the surface of the lake’s crater, just north of the equator, while clouds of dust rose.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to film an event like the landing on Mars,” said Michael Watkins, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
“These videos are really amazing,” he added. “We saw them all weekend.”
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s deputy administrator for science, said the video of the Perseverance landing is “the closest thing to landing on Mars without the use of spacesuits.”
Perseverance works normally
Jessica Samuels, head of operations for the Mars platform, said Perseverance has worked as planned so far and engineers are intensively testing its systems and devices.
“I am pleased to announce that perseverance is healthy and continues as we have planned,” said Samuels.
According to her, the team is now preparing to launch a small “Ingenuity” helicopter carried by the Martian.
“The team still appreciates it,” Samuels said. “We have not determined the location yet.”
The device should be the first plane launched on another planet. You will have to fly in an atmosphere with a density of only 1 percent. density of air on Earth.
Perseverance launched on July 30, 2020 and landed on the surface of Mars last Thursday.
Its main mission is scheduled to last a little over two years, but the Martian will likely last much longer. Its predecessor, Curiosity, which arrived on the Red Planet eight years ago, is still on the move.
Over the next year, Perseverance will attempt to collect 30 rock and soil samples. These samples, packed in sealed containers, are scheduled to be transported to Earth sometime in the 1930s for laboratory testing.
The SUV-sized Perseverance weighs about a ton, has a six-foot-long trackpad, 19 camcorders, and two microphones. It is also equipped with some state-of-the-art appliances.
It is known that in ancient times Mars was much warmer and more humid. Previous research suggests that there were once favorable conditions for life on this planet. Perseverance’s job is to help discover whether local life has really developed on Mars.
The apparatus should make the first wells in summer, as well as start using other instruments to study the chemical composition of the surface and look for organic matter.
In addition, an experiment will be carried out to investigate whether it would be possible to extract oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars, which consists mainly of carbon dioxide, as plants do during photosynthesis.
This test is expected to answer the question of whether astronauts could supply oxygen during possible future flights to the Red Planet.
Perseverance is only the fifth wheeled probe to successfully land on Mars. The first Martian landed in 1997; to date, these missions have been carried out solely by Americans.
The United States is also planning a human flight to Mars, but this project is still in its infancy.
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