Mars is talking to us: the first sounds recorded on the Red Planet by the Chinese rover

The noises could help understand environmental conditions on the planet and the density of its atmosphere. China has released a video and audio clip featuring what can be heard on Mars.

Chinese rover Zhurong has recorded the first sounds from the surface of Mars. China has released a video and audio clip that were released by the China Nation Space Agency. The sounds are of the rover leaving its lander on May 14. The noises are produced by the vehicle moving on the Red Planet and is very different from what you might expect on Earth. According to the deputy commander of the exploration program, Liu Jizhong, the sounds could provide clues about the conditions of the planet's environment and the density of its atmosphere. In fact, the Chinese one is not the first recording to come from Mars. Already Nasa's Perseverance rover, about a month before Zhurong's landing, had sent an audio recording that made the sound of the wind.

Recorded noises from the Red Planet

Since the Zhurong rover landed in May, it has moved 236 meters. The video shows a 360-degree view of Mars. "The sounds were caused by the sprockets rotating on the machine's support structure," said the deputy chief designer of the Tianwen-1 mission, Jia Yang. The expert also explained that in order to hear the sound of Martian winds, a microphone has been installed precisely with the aim of being able to hear what sound the breeze makes on a planet other than Earth.

A second video instead shows the rover as it hurtles across Mars, and the moment the lander reaches the Martian surface, including the deployment of the parachute upon landing. The rover is expected to remain active for about another 48 days, and during its mission, it is expected to analyze the chemical composition of the Martian soil and look for signs of water in the Utopia Planitia region where it landed. According to Yang's statement, the Zhurong rover is more autonomous on Mars and is part of the Tianwen-1 mission, China's first independent interplanetary mission.

Tianwen 1 consists of an orbiter, a lander and a rover. Zhurong is equipped with six science payloads, including a laser-induced fracture spectroscopy instrument for analysis of surface elements and minerals, and instrumentation Panoramic and multispectral imaging, climate station, magnetometer and georadar.

While astronauts and space scientists continue to study the Red Planet in all its details, on the web NFT technology allows people to purchase a piece of Mars in the form of non-fungible tokens.