When the Mars Perseverance rover lands on the Red Planet on February 18, not only will it collect images and rock samples, the data it collects can also make sounds from Mars which will be the first sound clips from any other planet, NASA said according to a report in IANS.
There is a pair of microphones that give a sound about arriving and landing on Mars, as well as the sounds of the rover working with wind and other sounds.
“It’s amazing all the science we can get with an instrument as simple as a microphone Mars, “said Baptiste Chide who works in NASA ‘s Jet Propulsion laboratory and contributes to the’ SuperCam ‘microphone.
Sounds on Earth differ on Mars
The way we hear sounds on Earth is going to be a little different on Mars. The Martian atmosphere just 1% of the density as the Earth at the level of the surface with a different shape to ours,
NASA
“But the difference between sounds on Earth and Mars would be much less than, for example, someone’s voice before and after injecting helium from a balloon,” a NASA statement said.
The SuperCam instrument has one microphone on board Perseverance on the mast and will be used to record Stability audio and natural sounds on Mars. The goal is to capture the laser sounds of the rover turning rock into plasma.
NASA
Because the SuperCam microphone is located on the remote sensing mast, it can be pointed to the location of a potential sound source. One more experimental microphone on board the rover will attempt to record sounds during entry, rescue and landing.
“We put a little grid at the end of the microphone to protect it from Martian dust,” said Dave Gruel of JPL.
NASA
“I think it will be nice to hear sounds from another planet,” he said.
The Mars 2020 mission is just one part of a larger program that also includes missions to the moon to prepare for a human study of Mars. With the goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2024, NASA wants to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon by 2028 of its Artemis lunar exploration plans.