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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is expected to turn on its specially-fitted microphone within the next week in order to listen in to the sounds of the Red Planet for the first time since landing in May.
Image: Phoenix Mars Lander. Credit: NASA
While excitement is high over recording the sounds of Mars, mission controllers have attempted to dampen expectations, saying that the microphone is not of professional standard, (comparing it to a mobile phone mic), while also pointing out that, because the Martian atmosphere is thinner than Earth's, sound waves do not travel as far.
With checks still needed to be made and Phoenix's software to be tweaked, Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona, Tucson, told SPACE.com: "We're just kind of cranking it up," at present.
Smith also said that while NASA had decided not to use the microphone on landing, "We'd always hoped to turn it on," adding that it would be the first time such an event had occurred.
The microphone, part of the Mars Descent Imager System (MARDI), will be activated when Phoenix's robotic arm is digging for samples to ensure that sound can be recorded successfully. If all goes well, the microphone will be switched on when the vehicle is quiet to see if noise can be picked up from the planet itself.
In addition to recording noises, the Imager System will also be instructed to take a picture once switched on. One possible subject is the so-called "barnacles" that appear to have been splashed up onto the legs of Phoenix during landing, which have shifted position during the mission. Controllers have no idea why the barnacles should behave in that fashion.
"It's one of those wonderful Martian mysteries," Smith said to SPACE.com.
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