Hi, curious universe listeners. Before we get into the episode, we have a quick note for you.

On February 18th, 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars and recorded sounds from the

red planet for the very first time. The interviews you're going to hear in the Sounds of Mars episode were recorded before the landing happened.

You're going to hear about what NASA experts hoped the sounds would be like, along with the actual sound recorded on Mars.

We hope you enjoy. This is NASA's curious universe.

Our universe is a wild and wonderful place.

I'm Patty Boyd, and in this podcast, NASA is your tour guide.

Since the summer of 2020,

a Mars rover named Perseverance has been hurtling through space,

flying many thousands of miles per hour towards its final destination,

the Red Planet.

Perseverance is on a mission to explore Mars

and collect Martian samples

so we can eventually study them here on Earth.

This isn't the first time we've sent a rover to Mars.

There are two robots actively exploring the red planet already,

the Curiosity rover and the Insight lander.

But Perseverance will do something different. For the first time,

Perseverance will collect sounds from Mars.

Hi, this is David Gruel, and I am speaking to you using one of the EDL cam microphones similar

to the ones that are destined for the surface of Mars.

David Grull works at JPL, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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