Starship Asterisk*

Hello ... I've been an amateur astronomer for going on 20 years , but I'm a newbie to the website.

Quick question: Has anyone ever thought about equipping any rover with a microphone? I think it would be cool to be able to hear the wind blowing on Mars (however faint -- I know the atmosphere is a fraction of Earth's), the motors of the rover spinning, or whatever occurs.

Same with anything in the future that might land on Titan -- Ever want to listen to a methane rain shower?

Such an addition might (MIGHT) perk some interest in the general public by having the capability to listen in on the happenings of another planet or moon.

Just a thought.

Brian Ingram

BrianIngram wrote:Quick question: Has anyone ever thought about equipping any rover with a microphone?

It was discussed as far back as Viking. But the proposals never advanced far, because there isn't enough scientific justification to do so. A microphone and its associated electronics and data storage would cut into the payload allocation for instruments with much more value. There's never enough capacity- whether volume, mass, or energy- for every instrument people would like to include on a mission. So things end up being whittled down to only the most valuable, after a long analysis process. And so far, a microphone hasn't made the cut.

Back in the days of Viking, I could understand it. But with the minimization that has been occuring with electronics these days ... take my iPod Touch for example: camera, microphone, efficient battery ... oh well ...

I wish there was a way to accomodate our curious-but-not-beneficial-to-science yearnings ....

Thanks for the reply.

Brian

BrianIngram wrote:Back in the days of Viking, I could understand it. But with the minimization that has been occuring with electronics these days ... take my iPod Touch for example: camera, microphone, efficient battery ... oh well ...

Keep in mind that the technology used on space probes is never the latest. The requirement for extremely robust, radiation hard packaging and component designs means that everything weighs more and takes more space than the equivalent (but far less reliable) consumer equivalents on Earth. Your iPod would probably last about 30 seconds in space.

Nevertheless, as technology advances it does become possible to put more equipment on probes. A couple have been launched recently with single-shot color cameras, which are more for producing PR shots than scientific data. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a microphone on a Mars lander one of these days.

Actually, a little research shows that a microphone was present on the Mars Polar Lander mission, which was lost.


This is clearly different technology than you find inside an iPod!

There was also a microphone on the Huygens probe, which was dropped onto Titan by Cassini. I remember listening to the sounds of the descent a few years ago.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRclIDOk ... re=related[/youtube]

neufer wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRclIDOk ... re=related[/youtube]

wow!

Interesting video, Art.

For myself, i think Mars sounds more like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOS7ByK2 ... re=related[/youtube]

Ann