The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: October 19, 2008

Official News page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: THE SOUND OF MARS

by Hazed

Our real world news items this week cover four of the five senses, starting with hearing. The Phoenix Mars Lander has a microphone, along with all its other sensors, and mission staff have now been given the funding to switch it on and process its signals. So we could hear the sound of the red planet.

Actually, it may not be all that impressive. The mike isn't a hi-fidelity piece of kit, but just a simple one like you'd find in a cellphone. In addition, the atmosphere on Mars is thin, only as dense as the Earth's is at 100,000 feet - more than three times the height of Everest. Thin air means sound waves won't be as strong as on Earth and won't travel as far.

The plan is to turn the mike on and see if it hears the Lander's tools working as it scratches away at the Martian surface. If the sounds of a shovel passing through gritty sand or scraping a rock come through, then the mission controllers will try listening when the Lander's tools are not active.

I wonder if they'll hear the sound of the Martians hammering and hooting...


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