One such mission includes the NASA rover Perseverance. When it lands, we can hear the sounds of Mars for the first time, thanks to microphones riding on the rover.
The interactive NASA compares sounds as we hear them on Earth with how they can sound on Mars, such as birdsong or music. If you were to speak on Mars, your voice would be more muffled and it would take longer for others to hear you.
So what will we be able to hear on Mars? The microphones are expected to pick up the sounds of the rover landing and working on Mars, as well as ambient noise such as wind. One of the microphones is located on top of the rover’s mast, so it can pick up natural sounds and even activity from the rover – like when the rover’s laser zaps rock samples and turns them into plasma to learn about their composition.
“It’s amazing all the science 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 SuperCam microphone employee. in a statement.
The other microphone listens to the sound of pyrotechnic devices deploying the parachutes during landing and the rover’s wheels moving across the surface of Mars.
“Recording audible sounds on Mars is a unique experience,” said Chide. “With the microphones on board Perseverance, we will add a fifth sense to the exploration of Mars. It will open a new field of scientific exploration for both the atmosphere and the surface.”
The Perseverance rover, tasked with the mission to hunt for signs of ancient life, and the Ingenuity helicopter, which will be the first to fly to another planet, will land on Mars on Feb. 18.
That doesn’t mean the planet isn’t buzzing with the activity of the robotic explorers NASA has sent to Mars in recent years.
3,000 days and counting
The Curiosity rover is still going strong and has been exploring Mars since it landed in 2012 – and it has been 3,000 Martian days since Curiosity landed on the red planet.
Curiosity has gradually climbed Mount Sharp, a mountain stretching 3 miles up in the middle of the 96 mile wide Gale Crater.
To celebrate 3,000 days on Mars, Curiosity took one of its famous panoramas. Geologists on the mission team were thrilled to see rocks resembling banks as Curiosity continues its ascent.
The panorama contains 122 individual images taken on November 18.
The center of the panorama shows the bottom of Gale Crater and the northern edge is on the horizon. The top layer of Mount Sharp can be seen on the right.
These bank-like stones form as softer layers of rock erode on slopes, leaving behind harder rocky layers of rock.
“Our science team is excited to find out how they were formed and what they mean for the ancient environment within Gale,” Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist, said in a statement.
InSight moves forward without its ‘mole’
The InSight mission, which landed on Mars in 2018, has been extended for an additional two years and is expected to operate through December 2022, according to an announcement from NASA.
Since InSight began exploring Mars, members of the mission team have learned more about the planet’s crust and mantle. They have identified a number of Marsquakes and determined that Mars is seismically active.
The scientists have also learned more about the atmosphere of Mars, the magnetic field and the internal structure of the planet.
During the expanded mission, InSight will track seismic activity on Mars and study the weather on Mars.
One thing that doesn’t go further, however, is InSight’s seemingly doomed “mole” or heat probe. The probe was intended to bury itself under the surface of Mars and take the internal temperature of Mars to better understand the warming behind the planet’s evolution.
Mars soil tends to clump together, which has proven to be an obstacle for the mole as it has been trying to bury itself since February 2019. Simply put, there isn’t enough friction for the mole to knock itself down further than the 3 inches it has reached. Even tapping the InSight robotic arm with a shovel didn’t help.
“We’ve given everything we have, but Mars and our heroic birthmark remain incompatible,” Tilman Spohn, the instrument’s lead researcher, said in a statement. “Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot that future missions that try to dig underground will be beneficial.”
This is the first time a mission has attempted to dig underground on Mars. However, the knowledge gained in this effort will be useful for future designs – especially for astronauts who may one day have to dig through the bottom of Mars or instruments looking for life underground.
“We are so proud of our team that worked hard to get InSight’s birthmarks deeper into the planet. It was great to see them solve problems millions of miles away,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement. “That’s why we take risks at NASA – we have to push the boundaries of technology to learn what works and what doesn’t.”