![]() “Sounds from Mars have been something the public has long found fascinating and, as a result, that The Planetary Society has embraced and pursued,” said Bruce Betts, chief scientist for The Planetary Society. The Polar Lander crashed on the surface, but more attempts would follow. The first, which flew to Mars in 1999 aboard NASA’s Mars Polar Lander, was sponsored by The Planetary Society, and became the first crowdfunded science instrument to fly to another planet. "Even if only a few minutes of Martian sounds are recorded from this first experiment, the public interest will be high and the opportunity for scientific exploration real," Sagan wrote.Īt least 3 Mars missions prior to Perseverance have had microphones as part of their design. ![]() If all goes well, Perseverance’s microphones will fulfill the wishes of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan, who wrote a letter to NASA in 1996 urging the space agency to send a microphone to Mars. One will listen as the rover plummets through the Martian atmosphere for landing, and another will record sounds as the rover does its scientific work in Jezero Crater-an ancient river delta where life may have flourished. NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is days away from blasting off on a mission to search for signs of past life and collect samples for future return to Earth, will have not one, but two microphones aboard. If you could stand on the surface of Mars, what would you hear? While 8 missions have returned stunning views from the surface of the Red Planet, none have returned any sound.
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