NASA's Perseverance Rover Captures First-Ever Audio and Video from Mars
NASA releases historic footage of the Perseverance rover's terrifying descent and the first audio recording of Martian winds.
NASA shares the first video and audio recordings from the surface of Mars, courtesy of the Perseverance rover. The footage documents the spacecraft's harrowing "seven minutes of terror" as it enters the Martian atmosphere and deploys its parachute at immense speeds. Five different cameras capture the historic landing from multiple angles, showing the heat shield separation and the red landscape below.
The detailed video reveals the final stages of descent in stunning clarity. Viewers see the Martian terrain, complete with dotted hills and craters, coming into focus as the rover approaches the ground. The descent stage then lowers Perseverance on cords using reverse thrusters before detaching and flying away to crash nearby, leaving the rover safely on the surface.
Perseverance also makes history by capturing the first audio ever recorded on Mars. The snippet features the sound of five-mile-per-hour winds blowing across the desolate Martian landscape. This unprecedented sensory data gives scientists and the public a completely new way to experience the red planet.