--- description: An off-the-shelf mic captures off-the-planet sounds. title: Listen to the Sounds of NASA's Perseverance Rover Driving on Mars image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt854def565c6f9f45/698a18054ee2620f8e3187fc/Perseverance-sounds.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Listen to the Sounds of NASA's Perseverance Rover Driving on Mars  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Mar 18, 2021 4:52 PM CUT  In this handout image provided by NASA, the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 on the planet Mars. In this handout image provided by NASA, the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 on the planet Mars.NASA—Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Mar 18, 2021 4:52 PM CUT You wouldn’t think sound could travel very well on Mars—what with the planet’s bare wisp of an atmosphere, which is just 1% the thickness of ours. Yet if you could stand without a spacesuit on the Martian surface (not advised) you’d actually hear plenty. That fact has already been confirmed by the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars on Feb. 18 and, using a microphone attached to a mast that holds a camera, [has picked up sounds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZw9MhgWjHQ "undefined") of the stirring of the wind and the ticking of its on-board laser as engineers test-fired it. (The laser is used to vaporize bits of rock which the rover can then analyze with its spectrometer.) Now, NASA has used a second microphone to [record](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/another-first-perseverance-captures-the-sounds-of-driving-on-mars "undefined") a much more evocative sound: the turning of wheels and the crunching of gravel as Perseverance rolled its first 27 m (90 ft) on the surface of the Red Planet. The rover moves slowly—so slowly that the little trip took 16 minutes, which makes for fascinating if admittedly labored listening. But NASA also released a cleaned up, 90-second version which filtered out a persistent squeaking sound—one that engineers think could be caused either by the movement of the wheels or electronic interference with some of the rover’s instruments. [NASA](https://soundcloud.com/nasa "undefined") · [Sounds of Perseverance Mars Rover Driving – Sol 16 (16 minutes)](https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sounds-of-perseverance-mars-rover-driving-sol-16-16-minutes "undefined") “If I heard these sounds driving my car, I’d pull over and call for a tow,” said Dave Gruel, a lead engineer, in a statement that accompanied the release. The Martian sound effects come courtesy not of a purpose-built, extra-special interplanetary microphone, but from a simple, off the shelf model that was originally included to capture the sounds of the spacecraft’s descent and landing, but continues to function. In the event anybody in the rover’s vicinity calls out a hello, the mic will surely capture that, too. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5947848/perseverance-rover-sound/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5947848/perseverance-rover-sound/"},"headline":"Listen to the Sounds of NASA's Perseverance Rover Driving on Mars","datePublished":"2021-03-18T16:52:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:47:07.325Z","description":"The evocative sounds of a distant world","url":"https://time.com/5947848/perseverance-rover-sound/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt854def565c6f9f45/698a18054ee2620f8e3187fc/Perseverance-sounds.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt854def565c6f9f45/698a18054ee2620f8e3187fc/Perseverance-sounds.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NASA Perseverance Rover Lands On Mars","caption":"In this handout image provided by NASA, the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing in the area known as Jezero crater on February 18, 2021 on","creditText":"NASA—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5947848/perseverance-rover-sound/","name":"Listen to the Sounds of NASA's Perseverance Rover Driving on Mars"}}]}] ```