The Tenacity Wagon represents a new historic milestone with this sound: for the first time, a device has recorded the sound of another device on another planet.

Published:

May 7, 2021, 22:03 GMT

It recorded the sound made by an Ingenuity helicopter during its fourth flight on Mars.

One of two microphones installed on NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded the sound produced by an autonomous Ingenuity helicopter during its fourth flight on Mars on April 30. From the US Space Agency They indicated Friday was the first time in history that a device was able to record another sound on another planet.

The rover was 80 meters from where the helicopter took off and landed, and NASA specialists were not sure its microphone could record the sound the plane makes during flight.

David Maimon, professor of planetary science at the SuperSpace Institute at the University of Toulouse and lead scientist at the SuperCam Mars Microphone, declared the achievement “a very good surprise”.

“We did tests and simulations that told us that the microphone will hardly pick up helicopter sounds, because the Martian atmosphere is suppressed by the force of sound propagation. We were fortunate to record the helicopter at such a distance,” he said, adding that this recording “would be a goldmine of our understanding of the Martian atmosphere.”

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