By Tim Binnall
NASA's much-heralded InSight Lander has already made history by captured the sound of wind on Mars for the first time ever. According to the space agency, sensors aboard the craft picked up "a haunting low rumble" last weekend which was determined to be 10 to 15 mph winds coming from a dust devil that had stirred up nearby. The principal investigator for the lander marveled that "this audio was an unplanned treat."
The sound was subsequently released today by the space agency, who explained that the wind was actually detected by two separate instruments on the lander in distinctly different ways. A seismometer recorded it via vibrations of the craft which were caused by the dust devil breeze sweeping over and rattling the lander's solar panels. Meanwhile, an air pressure sensor aboard the craft captured the wind sound directly.
Although the sound is below the threshold of human hearing, NASA increased the pitch of the recording in their release so that it would be perceptible to people. The space agency also teased that there will likely be future recordings from Mars in 2020 when the next rover arrives on the Red Planet equipped with two microphones specifically to record "the sound of a Mars landing."