Many consider the various rovers we have sent to Mars as the next best thing to send a geologist to the Red Planet. Mind, opportunity and curiosity have taken all the necessary equipment similar to what human geologists use on earth and are able to navigate the terrain, “see” the landscape with the various cameras, take rock and dust samples pick up with shovels and then analyze them with various tools and devices on board.
In addition to all of these things, the new Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will add a “sense of hearing” to its robotic toolkit. The rover includes a pair of microphones that will allow us to hear what Mars really sounds like for the first time.
Perseverance is slated to land in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021.
“It’s amazing how much science we can do with an instrument as simple as a microphone on Mars,” said Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral fellow in planetary science at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a contributor on the SuperCam microphone.
Perseverance has 2 microphones circled on this rendering of the NASA Curiosity rover. One is part of the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) system, which is responsible for getting the rover safely to the surface through the Martian atmosphere. The other is included in the rover’s SuperCam science instrument. NASA / JPL
The SuperCam instrument is located on the mast of the rover and contains one of the two Perseverance microphones. This microphone is used for two things: science and technology.
For science, audio is recorded of the natural sounds on Mars: wind, storms and other ambient sounds on Mars. Since the SuperCam microphone is located on the rover’s remote sensing mast, it can be pointed towards a potential sound source.
But the science of “listening” on Mars has another aspect as well. The SuperCam is an updated version of the Curiosity Rover’s laser-zapping ChemCam. Like its predecessor, SuperCam uses an infrared laser beam to heat and vaporize rocks and regoliths. The microphone can record the sound of the laser beaming the stones, and the resulting popping noise gives scientists clues as to the composition and hardness of the rock.
On the technical side, the microphone listens to the rover at work and provides information on how the mast is turning, the wheels are turning, or how other instruments work. This can be an important technical diagnostic tool.
MSL Curiosity MastCam image of the mountain. Sharp from Sol 2601. Photo credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill
The second microphone is a real “microphone drop”. A microphone attempts to record noises during the biting and extremely tricky entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of the mission. For example, it can detect sounds from pyrotechnic devices firing to release the parachute, the Martian winds, wheels grinding on the Martian surface, and the roaring engines of the descending vehicle as it flies safely away from the rover.
Excitingly, the recorded audio is paired with the full color video recorded by the EDL cameras. In this way, viewers can experience what the landing on Mars looks and sounds like for the first time.
JPL says this mic is off the shelf with a tweak.
“We put a small grille on the end of the microphone to protect it from Martian dust,” said Dave Gruel, Operations Manager for Mars 2020 Assembly, Test and Launch and EDL Camera and Microphone Manager at JPL.
However, scientists warn that the sounds Perseverance collects may not sound quite the same on Mars as they do to our ears on Earth. This is because the Martian atmosphere on the surface is only 1% as dense as the Earth’s atmosphere and has a different composition than ours, which affects the emission and propagation of sound.
But the discrepancy between sounds on Earth and Mars would be much less dramatic than, say, someone’s voice before and after inhaling helium from a balloon, engineers say. While scientists try the best they can to predict how things will sound, they won’t know for sure until persistence is on the red planet. Whatever they find out, Gruel said, “I think it will be really neat to hear noises from another planet.”
However, this is not the first time a microphone has been sent to Mars. The Planetary Society has been part of several attempts to use a Martian microphone, but none have been successful so far. The first was on Mars Polar Lander, but this spacecraft crashed on December 3, 1999 while descending to Mars.
Then in 2007 a microphone was installed as part of the descent imager on NASA’s Phoenix lander. However, the microphone was never turned on because the engineers identified a potential electronic problem in the microphone that could affect other systems. A microphone was part of the early design discussions for Curiosity, but the microphone was cut off due to budget overrun issues.
The first sounds may be reflected back to Earth and can be heard by the public within days of landing. A better processed version will be released about a week later. The team will process the sounds with the help of audio experts in order to hear the most interesting sounds more clearly.
While you wait for Perseverance to land, NASA has a new online interactive experience that lets you hear what things are like on Mars.
You can listen to other recordings made by NASA engineers in this press release.
March 2020 Rover NASA website.
Like this:
Loading…
Comments are closed.