[HCDX]: Sounds from Mars

["Horacio A. Nigro" <hanigro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear HCDXers
Not Tropical Band tips nor logs today but outer space...

The Mars Polar Lander expected to land on Mars on December 3, 1999 20:00:26
UTC (12:00:26 PM PST).

As you may already know they will put a microphone on Mars to let us all
hear for the eventual noises there.

An interesting page regarding the microphone project from the official site
is at:

 http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/lidar/microphone/index.html

Quoting them...

 The Planetary Society's Mars Microphone, built at the University of
California Space Science Laboratory, was launched as part of the Mars Polar
Lander mission on January 3, 1999.  

The Mars Microphone was constructed largely of off-the-shelf parts,
including a microphone similar to those in hearing aids and a microprocessor
chip used in speech recognition devices.  

The Mars Microphone is a small device, roughly 5 centimeters on a side and
one centimeter thick, weighing less than 50 grams (less than two ounces) and
using a small amount of power, less than 0.1 watt during its most active
times. You can see how small the instrument is in the photo on this page
(photo courtesy of Robin Weiner, Associated Press). 

The microphone got a free ride to Mars in the Russian LIDAR instrument,
courtesy of the Space Research Institute in Moscow, who integrated and
tested the microphone in their experiment. 

Sending a microphone to Mars was initially proposed by Society cofounder
Carl Sagan. Janet Luhmann of the University of California at Berkeley, and
David Juergens of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, teamed with the Planetary
Society to make the Mars Microphone Project a reality. 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More information on the Mars Microphone is available on the Planetary
Society's Planetfest '99 web site: 
Questions and Answers provides a list of frequently asked questions about
the microphone. 
The Story of the Planetary Society's Mars Microphone offers a brief history
of planetary microphones and details the Mars Microphone's history. 
Sounds from Another World presents a clear overview of the Mars Microphone
project. 
The Physics of Sound offers information on the science of sound on Earth and
on Mars. 
 
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73 de Horacio,

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