I was so excited when Mars Curiosity had a safe landing. But soon after, I was dissapointed by something I read. According to the Mars Curiosity official Twitter feed, the lander has no microphone; no way of letting us listen to the sounds of Mars.
Let's think about this ladies and gentlmen. A 750kg rover didn't have room for a 1 gram microphone. Obviously they could have so easily attached a small microphone to Curiosity. But they didn't. Why?
I beleive the answer is very simple; 'it wasn't part of the science payload'. It's of no scientific value.
I think it is so sad that the good folks at NASA don't understand what the public and especially us scifi fans really want. Yes, we need the science, the investigations of the rocks and atmosphere and all that jazz. But we also want the drama, the beatiful but harsh alien landscapes, the red dusty skies and... yes to hear the sound of the roaring Martian wind, depsite it's questionable scientific value.
MF
Could not agree more. It was one of my first questions: Yes, hi defintion is great but what does it sound like?
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that Curiosity isn't curious enough to know what it sounds like on another planet. Maybe it's just us Marc!
Nope, it's me too. However all is not lost as the European ExoMars rover (2016) is planned to have a microphone, and maybe even stereo! See http://www.planetaryprobe.org/sessionfiles/Session5/Abstracts/a166.pdf
ReplyDeleteSarah.