back to article Phoenix Lander listens to Mars murmurings

What would you hear if you were on Mars? A slight hiss from whatever wind there might be and then your own death rattle, probably - but the Phoenix Mars Lander is aiming to find out what other sounds the red planet has to offer. The Lander has a microphone, fitted as part of an imaging system that was going to take photos as …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Frank
    Happy

    Strange.....

    "..It wasn't switched on because it might have endangered the landing..." what?? why?? how??

    "..have now got funding to switch the mike on and process its signals..." It wasn't planned for?

    "..the mike is a simple cell phone-like mike, not a high-fidelity one.." Done on the cheap?

    This may sound whimsical, but I get the feeling that this microphone was added as a last minute 'unofficial upgrade' by a junior engineer who thought it would be a good idea. Only later, after launch, did he tell his senior colleagues - "Hey, guess what, I rigged it up with a microphone! :) "

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like

    An excuse to put up an "artists impression". A scientists impression might be more realistic, but I'll settle for a martian's impression of GW Bush.

  3. buddypepper
    Coat

    mic - not mike

    It's a mic (short for microphone - not mikerophone).....unless the mic is named mike, I suppose.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mars mic

    The 'Mars mic' is a public outreach project supplied by the (not-for-profit) Planetary Society.

    Full details, including why it wasn't switched on during descent, can be found here:

    http://tinyurl.com/4eklq4

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Dwarfs

    "If they can pick up sounds like a shovel passing through gritty sand or scraping a rock, then they'll try listening when the Lander's tools are idle."

    I'd be happier if they heard the lander singing "heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go" followed by whistling.

    Why do NASA not know how to have fun? Sigh

  6. NickS
    Alien

    It's Life Jim . . .

    Lets hope the quasi-barnacles don't silence the mission first . . .

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    be that as it may

    We need playmobil pictures...i want to SEE and HEAR the martians

  8. Kanhef
    Boffin

    Not dust

    Clearly, they have found one of Mars' native life forms. They're attracted to the heat of the lander, especially since the martian winter is coming.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Microphone

    They spent umpteen million (billion?) dollars on this project. They couldn't have splurged an extra $25 for a decent microphone? "Hey guys, I know how we can keep this under budget!"

  10. Graham Marsden
    Alert

    Just as long as it doesn't hear...

    Ull-la! Ull-la!

    Still, the chances of that are a million to one...

  11. NT
    Alien

    @ Dwarfs

    << Why do NASA not know how to have fun? Sigh >>

    I suspect it's because they've learned a hard lesson, one that most public-facing organisations learn sooner or later: a sense of fun is a dangerous thing when you're dealing with the public at large. If I suffer from an abject lack of sense of humour, a significant part of that is down to years spent in a job involving talking to the public.

    I don't know if you recall a certain incident in the 1970s, when NASA released a certain photograph with a certain geographical (all right, areographical, if you insist) feature on it that looked a little bit like a face? NASA probably thought, "oh, cool - look: a rock that looks like a face; isn't that groovy?" (I'm paraphrasing - it was the 70s.)

    NASA must have learned pretty quickly after that that you have to be enormously careful about what you say and what you suggest. Show a sense of fun, or any kind of emotional investment in what you're doing, and the public will take indignant offence; or they'll mock you for your stupidity (and "it was just a joke" doesn't ring true even when it's true); or they'll misrepresent whatever you said and construct unconvincing yet elaborate conspiracy theories about it, with websites and everything.

  12. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Alien

    Marvin

    Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom!

  13. Chris Barrett
    Thumb Up

    Bliss

    "Somebody on the surface 20 feet away from you could be talking and you wouldn't hear a thing, just see their lips moving." Could I relocate the missus there?? It sounds ideal.

  14. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Bliss

    Hey, Chris, the Guild of Seventies Sitcom Writers called for you. They sounded... angry.

  15. Chris Barrett
    Joke

    Re: Re: Bliss

    Sarah - my sponsors (The B. Manning & J. Davidson Preservation Society) take all my enquiries. Please forward any correspondence on to my willing assistants (who are all currently running around the park at high speed in naughty-nurse underwear).

  16. Gianni Straniero
    Alien

    @NT

    "NASA must have learned pretty quickly after that you have to be enormously careful about what you say and what you suggest"

    Well, the nerds at JPL clearly didn't get that memo:

    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1041

  17. NT
    Thumb Up

    @ Gianni Straniero

    << Well, the nerds at JPL clearly didn't get that memo: >>

    Good on them. I like to see people enjoying their work, and I salute their bravery. But I stand by my previous answer.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like