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First sounds of wind on Mars captured by NASA’s Insight Lander
This fresh in from the Elysium Planitia of Mars: the sound of wind from an alien world. On its 10th day as a new resident of the red planet, NASA’s InSight lander’s pressure sensor transmitted air vibration data from its trembling solar panels, representing a steady breeze about 99 million miles away. The combination of photos sent back from the craft with the sound of Martian wind gives Earth residents a unique moment to feel like they’ve joined the craft themselves. “It’s fun to imagine that I’m there,” mused Don Banfield during a JPL media teleconference discussing the recording. Banfield is InSight’s Auxiliary Payload Sensor Subsystem (APSS) Science Lead.
InSight, short for “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport”, launched aboard an Atlas V rocket on May 5, 2018 and successfully landed on the Martian surface on November 26, 2018. The craft is a seismic investigator sent to study the red planet’s core, eventually drilling 10-16 feet down into its crust to gather geographical data. The craft’s landing event was live streamed online for viewers around the world, greeting Earthlings with a photo of its new home’s surface shortly after. It sent back more photos of the surrounding area prior to the wind recording.
The thin CO2 atmosphere on Mars doesn’t translate high sounds well, so the recorded vibrations from InSight’s pressure sensor are low on the audio spectrum, under 50 Hz, thus difficult to hear. However, after the frequency was increased by a factor of 100 (raised two octaves), it became possible to hear what sounds like a steady wind blowing across the regolith. Dust devils tracked in the area moving across the Martian surface had motion consistent with the wind recordings, thus confirming what was being heard by InSight’s scientists.
The way InSight picks up and translates sound is similar to how a human ear works: Air pressure vibrates the eardrum, then that vibration pattern is sent through the inner ear bones to the cochlea which has tiny hairs translating the vibrations into electrical signals sent to the brain. InSight’s solar panels are like its eardrums, the spacecraft structure itself like its inner ear, its instruments like its cochlear, and its electronic box translating and transmitting signals is like brain. The “sounds” we hear from Mars are translated data from wind-caused vibrations.
Ironically enough, wind noise is actually not a particularly desired outcome from InSight’s instruments. According to the scientists participating in NASA’s teleconference discussing the event, the inlet for the pressure sensor was specifically designed to minimize any chatter from air movement. Also, the placement of InSight’s seismographic gear will be based on the best area to reduce input from the lander’s interaction with the vibrations it’s recording, i.e., the lander’s movement from seismic events. It should be noted, though, the Martian wind gracing our human ears for the first time is only a taste of what’s to come from InSight’s instruments.
Once the wind and thermal shield (the white dome in the photos) has been lifted from the lander in a few weeks, all of InSight’s instruments will be exposed to the Martian environment for data collection. For now, the lander’s Earth-based team is first focusing on understanding the area the craft is in to pick the best place to set its instruments. After the main mission begins, however, a full study of Mars’ atmosphere will be underway and we could hear, among other natural events, the sounds of exploding meteors.
While wind may be a unique sound to hear on an alien world, it’s not the first time a NASA craft has entertained our ears and imaginations. Electromagnetic vibrations have been recorded all across our solar system, perhaps the most famous of which originated from the Voyager 1 spacecraft launched in 1977. The data collected from the craft’s radio-capturing instruments has been converted into audio files – you can even find a full album’s worth of the sounds on a variety of streaming sites. Some of the recordings are meditation-worthy, others a touch unnerving. We humans have additionally added some recordings of our own to space via Voyager’s famous “golden record”, the sounds of which are also available for listening online.
If you’re craving a full Martian soundtrack, you’ll be happy to know that NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is planned to provide just that. It will have two microphones on board, one of which will record the actual landing of the rover. Combined with telemetry data and surface photographs, Mars is on its way to its own documentary with inputs completely provided “on-location”. Stay tuned!
Listen to the Martian wind yourself below:
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
