The sound of Mars: Chinese release recording of Martian surface by their rover lander
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) released a series of audio files that were the first recorded by the country's Mars rover Zhurong.
The sound was captured on 22 May by microphones installed on the rover, when it went for its first drive, about a week after it landed on the red planet.
Jia Yang, deputy chief designer of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe system, said: "The sounds were made when the pinion of the Mars rover rotates on the rack, or say the clashing sounds between metals.
"The purpose we install the recording device is to capture the sounds of wind on Mars during its windy weathers. We really want to hear how the winds sound like on a planet other than the Earth."
The Chinese rover is the second to record sound from the Martian surface after NASA's Perseverance Rover captured the sounds of wind on 20 February. NASA has since released a number of other recordings made by Perseverance.
The first 'noise' ever recorded on Mars, including marsquakes, was captured by NASA's InSight lander after it arrived on the red planet in November 2019, but this was vibrations from the planet and surrounding area, rather than actual sound.
