FEBRUARY 18: LANDING AND WHAT DOES MARS SOUND LIKE?

Stunning video shot on Perseverance’s landing day shows the rover plummeting, parachuting and rocketing toward the surface of Mars.

“For those who wonder how you land on Mars – or why it is so difficult, or how cool it would be to do so – you need look no further,” says acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. “Perseverance is just getting started, and already has provided some of the most iconic visuals in space exploration history.”

After touchdown, a microphone on the rover doubles down on cool by picking up a remarkable first, recorded on 20 February: audio recordings from the

Jezero Crater on Mars.

About 10 seconds into the one-minute recording, a Martian breeze is audible for a few seconds, as are mechanical sounds of the rover operating on the

Red Planet’s surface.

After being dropped out of Perseverance’s belly (top left), Ingenuity sat alone (top right) through various systems tests for several days, before taking its first flight (above middle pair) on 19 April. On Ingenuity’s third flight, on 25 April, it snapped the Mars rover (above, at far left) about 85m away and the rover’s landing site (at far right).