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The audio collected by the mission may not sound exactly the same on Mars as it does to our ears on Earth. A new interactive online experience lets you taste the difference.
When the Mars Perseverance rover lands on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, it will not only collect stunning images and rock samples; the data it returns may also include some recorded sounds from Mars.
The rover carries a pair of microphones which, if all goes according to plan, will provide interesting and historical audio of the arrival and landing on Mars, along with the sounds of the rover at work and of the wind and other ambient noises.
The way many things sound on Earth would be slightly different on the Red Planet. This is because the Martian atmosphere is only 1% denser than the Earth’s atmosphere on the surface and has a different composition than ours, which affects the emission and propagation of sound. But the discrepancy between the sounds of Earth and Mars would be much less dramatic than, say, someone’s voice before and after inhaling helium from a balloon.
NASA offers an opportunity on this website to hear some familiar sounds from Earth, as scientists expect you to hear them if you were on Mars. You will hear, for example, the chirping of birds, the beep of a backing truck, the bell of a bicycle and music as they play on our planet and scientists anticipate that they would ring on Mars. The differences are subtle.
Microphones
An onboard Perseverance microphone, located on the SuperCam instrument on top of the rover’s mast, will be used for science and to record Perseverance audio and natural sounds on Mars. It will capture the sounds of the rover’s laser turning the rock into plasma when it hits a target to gather information about the rock’s properties, including hardness. Since the SuperCam microphone is located on the remote sensing pole of the mobile, it can point in the direction of a possible sound source.
“It’s amazing all the science that we can get with an instrument as simple as a microphone on Mars,” said Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral researcher in planetary science at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a contributor to the SuperCam microphone.
An additional experimental microphone aboard the rover will attempt to record sounds during the super complicated entry, descent and landing (EDL) of the mission. You can capture, for example, the sounds of pyrotechnic devices being fired to release the parachute, Martian winds, wheels creaking on the Martian surface, and roaring engines of the descending vehicle while flying safely away from the vehicle. This mic is ready to go, with a fit. “We put a small grill at the end of the microphone to protect it from Martian dust,” said Dave Gruel, Mars 2020 assembly, test and launch operations manager and EDL microphone and camera leader at JPL.
A soundboard for Mars Audio
Members of the SuperCam science team assisted with this interactive experience, providing scientific insight into why audio sounds different on Mars than it does on Earth. It is based on theoretical models of sound propagation in a Martian atmosphere.
Scientists provide three main reasons for the sound differences:
- Temperature: The colder Martian atmosphere reduces the speed at which sound waves reach the target microphone. If there’s something close to the mic, we probably won’t notice much of a difference, but more distant sounds can have more noticeable changes.
- Density: Because the Martian atmosphere is much less dense than ours here on Earth, it will affect the way sound waves travel from the source to the detector. Sounds are likely to be quieter on Mars, with less detectable signal and noise. It may be harder to hear soft noises and even louder ones.
- Composition of the atmosphere: Because the atmosphere of Mars is primarily carbon dioxide (Earth’s atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen), high-frequency noises will likely be more attenuated than bass tones, meaning we probably won’t hear them as well as the lowest sounds.
Chide said: “The sounds on Mars are slightly different from those on Earth due to the atmospheric composition and its properties. All sounds will have a lower volume due to low pressure. Also, the high frequency tones will be strongly attenuated by the carbon dioxide molecules. In general, it would be like listening through a wall. “
Because we have never successfully used microphones on Mars before, this experiment may produce some surprises. While scientists are trying to predict as best they can how things will sound, they won’t know for sure until Perseverance is on the Red Planet. Regardless of what they find out, Gruel said, “I think it’s going to be really nice to hear sounds from another planet.”
“Recording audible sounds on Mars is a unique experience,” Chide added. “With the microphones on board Perseverance, we will add a fifth sense to the exploration of Mars. It will open a new area of scientific research for both the atmosphere and the surface ”.
The first sounds can be sent back to Earth and made available for the public to hear within days after landing, with a more processed version released about a week after that. The computer will process the sounds, with the help of audio experts, to hear the most interesting sounds more clearly.
Listen to audio clips with Dave Gruel, recorded on the same type of microphone that is used to enter, descend and land on:
For additional audio clips (from a different microphone) from Baptiste Chide, go to:
And what would you sound like on Mars? Your voice would be a softer, muffled version, and others would take longer to hear you. Check back at mars.nasa.gov/mars-sounds for a future experience where you can “martian” your voice and hear what it might sound like on the red planet.
More about the mission
A key goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including searching for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and store Martian rocks and regoliths (broken rocks and dust).
Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA in cooperation with the European Space Agency, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger program that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Tasked with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration plans.
JPL, which is run for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the operations of the Perseverance rover.
For more information on perseverance:
mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
nasa.gov/perseverance
News media contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-9011
[email protected]
Gray Headstone / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
[email protected] / [email protected]
Written by Jane Platt
