Hear the first sounds recorded by the Zhurong rover on the surface of Mars

The Chinese rover Zhurong has been on the Red Planet for several weeks. He recently sent to Earth the first sounds he recorded on Mars.

The material was made available by the Central Chinese Television (CCTV) and you can see the departure of the Zhurong rover from the Tianwen-1 lander. This maneuver took place on May 22. The set also includes sounds captured on Mars and recordings of driving on the local surface. In addition, the Chinese also included in the video the moment of descent of the "package" attached to the parachute.

READ MORE: The Chinese Zhurong rover was spotted from the orbit of Mars. See photos

Jia Yang, one of the specialists involved in the Tianwen-1 mission, stated that the purpose of placing the recording device within Zhurong was to capture the sounds produced on Mars during windy weather. The Chinese wanted to document the sound of the wind on a planet other than Earth in this way.

The Zhurong rover landed on the surface of Mars on May 14

Weighing about 240 kilograms, the rover is to spend about 90 Martian days there. During this period, he will study the Red Planet using high-resolution cameras, subsurface radar, multispectral camera, magnetic field and surface composition detectors, and a weather monitoring instrument.

Also read: Mars may have more water than previously thought. However, the temperature may be a problem

The mission also includes the Tianwen-1 orbiter, which was designed to survive a full Martian year, or approximately 687 Earth days. The ship took off from Earth in July 2020 and reached Mars orbit in February of this year. The Martian rover Zhurong landed in the Utopia Planitia plain on May 14. His mission is one of the many that the Chinese have been engaged in recently, regularly increasing their influence in space.