She shot up out of thunder
Now so many months ago
We listened eagerly for signals from her radio
She escaped gravity
Riding on a burst of flame
A little bitty rover with a big, big name
A little bitty rover with a big, big name.
(county waltz space) Dare Mighty Things!
I am a super big, giant nerd –a very proud one. So of course, I watched the launch that sent Perseverance to Mars, and I watched her triumphant landing on Jezero Crater on Feb. 18.
I wasn’t planning to write a song about her, but here we are. She should have one! She’s a bold explorer, out there going into the wild red dust. I am in thrall.
For some reason, Mars feels like the wild west to me. Perseverance feels like a charming, old-timey name that’s perfect for the setting. Those Rovers are really and truly space cowboys, so it had to be a country waltz. With space noises. And whistling.
My teenage son, who loves space even more than I, agreed to play his drum set and let me record some drum samples so I could use them in this song. (This is our first such collaboration. Also, his name is etched on the Perseverance with almost 11 million others!)
I have worked on it for …way, way, way more than I probably should have, but I am in love with that Rover and her little helicopter companion. And when I realized that I could add really intentional sounds to help with her story…well, there we are.
In this song, you’ll hear the Apollo 11 Quindar tone test for our count in (and I did not have to adjust for the bpm –it was meant to be!), the launch burn from Discovery, servo sounds, and Cassini Saturn Radio Emissions. The soft base hum is a loop of NASA’s audio clip of what a bicycle bell would sound like on Mars. A few spacy sounds round it out.
Lyrics, composition, sound design, production: Monique Bouchard
Percussion samples: Jesse Bouchard
Sound samples: NASA
Lyrics
The Red Sands of Jezero*
_ _ _ _ _
She shot up out of thunder
Now so many months ago
We listened eagerly for signals from her radio
She escaped gravity
Riding on a burst of flame
A little bitty rover with a big, big name
A little bitty rover with a big, big name.
She was headed for Jezero,
And its dusty crater floor
To unlock the mysteries
Of what had come before
Perseverance, that rambling rover
Will help us to learn and breathe and fly
She’ll show us her moxie
on that rust-red sand
That shines bright in the sky.
Promised when she’d landed
We’d know she’d made it there
To the monumental crater after falling through the air
We received the message
sent at the speed of light
Her shadow indicated she would be alright
Her shadow indicated she would be alright
She landed at Jezero,
On its dusty crater floor
To fly with Ingenuity
Where none have flown before
Perseverance, that rambling rover
Will help us to learn and breathe and fly
She’ll show us her moxie
on that rust-red sand
That shines bright in the sky.
Carried on her frame
Are the work of countless hands
The hopes and dreams of science and names from many lands
Some sign of habitation
And samples from the core
Are why we sent her up there to explore, explore
Are why we sent her up there to explore, explore
She’s traveling around Jezero,
And its dusty crater floor
With her visual acuity
We’ll learn more than before
Perseverance, that rambling rover
Will help us to learn and breathe and fly
She’ll show us her moxie
on that rust-red sand
That shines bright in the sky.
# # #
* (Yez-zeh-roh)