Business  •  Technology

NASA Unveils Video and Sounds of Perseverance Rover’s Mars Landing

NASA recorded sound from Mars for the first time.

By •
This is a high-resolution still image, part of a video taken by several cameras as NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has released the hotly-anticipated video footage captured during the Perseverance Mars rover’s landing on the Red Planet last week.

Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter

By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime.

See all of our newsletters

Perseverance, the largest extraterrestrial rover NASA has ever built, safely landed in the Jezero Crater of Mars on Thursday. The rover was equipped with six sophisticated cameras and two microphones designed to record sound from another planet for the first time.

The three-minute video unveiled on Monday afternoon includes footage taken by cameras on a descent stage, called “Skycrane,” and the rover itself. One camera on the descent stage facing the sky captured a perfect parachute opening right after Perseverance entered Mars’ atmosphere. Another camera facing down captured how the rover was lowered by the descent stage’s cables. And as it neared touchdown, the viewfinder fogged up as the rover’s landing force blew surface dusts into the air.

NASA also released two audio files recorded by the microphones on Perseverance after it landed.

The video and audio made public were among the 30 gigabytes of data and over 23,000 images obtained by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Over the weekend, the Perseverance rover sent back a number of photos of never-before-seen view of what it looked like to land on Mars, including a picture of the rover’s top taken by a camera aboard the descent platform shortly before its touchdown, closeups of Mars’ surface and one of Perseverance’s six wheels taken by cameras on the rover’s body, and a rare bird’s-eye view snapped by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the moment when Perseverance’s parachute opened.

This high-resolution image shows one of the six wheels aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, which landed on Feb.18, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech
This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on Feb. 18, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The descent stage holding NASA’s Perseverance rover can be seen falling thorough the Martian atmosphere, its parachute trailing behind, in this image taken on Feb. 18, 2021 by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An ellipse indicates where Perseverance eventually touched down within Jezero Crater. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA Unveils Video and Sounds of Perseverance Rover’s Mars Landing
Filed Under: Business, Technology, Space, Perseverance, Red Planet, Mars, NASA