SESDA Supports Mars Landing
April 5, 2021
The NASA audio program, based at Goddard, and led by SESDA staff (Katie Atkinson, lead) supported communications efforts for the Mars Perseverance landing in February. Staff worked with NASA HQ and Jet Propulsion Laboratory communications teams to plan, produce, and release a “Sounds of Mars” episode for the enterprise podcast, NASA’s Curious Universe. With this release, NASA debuted the first audio recording from Mars via NASA’s audio platforms. It is the first time recorded sounds from Mars were featured on any podcast.
The episode released in tandem with the Feb. 22 Mars Perseverance press conference from JPL, and featured the voices of Jim Green (NASA Chief Scientist), David Gruel (Perseverance EDL Camera Lead), and Erisa Stilley (Perseverance Systems Engineer). The final “Sounds of Mars” episode was featured on the front page on the Apple Podcasts page and garnered over 150k plays on Soundcloud in a week, breaking the record for most plays of a NASA podcast episode on soundcloud.com/nasa.
Additionally, throughout the month of March, NASA’s SoundCloud page received 5,000,000 listens and saw a surge in subscribers to the page. NASA’s SoundCloud now has 145k followers.”
