NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Has Captured Its First Audio Clip on Mars

In another historic first for NASA‘s Mars Ingenuity, space fans worldwide can now hear the helicopter fly over Mars. Working together with NASA’s Perseverance rover, the rotorcraft managed to capture an audio clip, making it the first time a spacecraft on another planet has recorded sounds coming from a separate spacecraft.

Though the Ingenuity’s blades were spinning at 2,537 rotations per minute, it appears to be difficult to hear the helicopter hovering above Mars, since Perseverance was only 262 feet away from the drone’s takeoff and landing spot. Due to the planet’s already thin atmosphere, it makes it more difficult for sound to travel, not to mention cut through the winds on Mars. In order ot make it easier to hear, NASA edited the recording to isolate the 84-hertz frequency generated by the spacecraft’s rotating blades.

Initially, scientists set expectations low, but since the flight, David Mimoun, the lead on Perseverance’s SuperCam microphone said, “This is a very good surprise. This recording will be a gold mine for our understanding of the Martian atmosphere.”

Check out NASA’s video captured on the Perseverance with its Mastcam-Z imager and SuperCam microphone below.

I’ve seen what the #MarsHelicopter can do – and now I’ve heard it.

🎧 Grab headphones and listen to the otherworldly hum of Ingenuity’s blades as it headed south to scout a new area on its fourth flight.

How I captured both sight and sound: https://t.co/95J9X3bcyO pic.twitter.com/Lw44x7kqYZ

— NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) May 7, 2021

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