An exploration of the sounds of space exploration - made here on Earth. ESA's ESTEC facility is where spacecraft are prepared for travel.

Here are sounds recorded of prototypes of ESA's upcoming ExoMars rover, made in the Planetary Robotics Lab. This includes sounds as we would actually hear them (albeit in Earth atmosphere), as the rover prototype tests its wheels and disembarks from the lander mock-up and traverses some simulated Martian gravel.

It also includes some electro-magnetic radiation, converted to audible sound. 

In addition, I've included sounds of the popping of nitrogen valves from the Materials & Electrical Components Laboratory, involved in a materials test.

The microphones used for this recording are specially made by Slovakia's Jonáš Gruska (LOM Label). Audible spectrum recordings are made with Uši; EMF recordings with Elektrosluch.

These were produced in November 2016 as part of a collaboration with the European Space Agency and TEDxESA. They're CC for a reason - we hope you'll remix and reuse them!

Credit: Peter Kirn/CDM/ESA CC BY-SA

ESTEC - Mars Rover Traversing Gravel

Official SoundCloud channel of ESA - the European Space Agency. Most (not all) audio content here is licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0. Please check individual credits to be certain. Can't find a track? Our channel used to be http://www.soundcloud.com/esaops - but not anymore. Try searching here for the track name or using keywords instead.

ESTEC - Mars Rover Traversing Gravel

PETER KIRN