DIGGER27
In Memory Of
In 1999 NASA sent a probe to Mars, the Mars Polar Lander.
It had a microphone on board and when it landed and they turned it on we here in earth could actually listen to what it sounded like on another planet.
I was excited about this, I am never going to set foot on another planet but this was way cool...the pictures we get back from other probes are extremely great but by now this is old hat.
This mission was going to let us hear the sounds from another planet...something we never experienced before.
I waited as it made its trip to the red planet and then...nothing.
There was supposed to be a rocket that fired to slow it down as it entered the atmosphere pre landing and the best they can tell it did but then it cut off too early for some reason.
The result...instead of a soft landing it piled into the surface at a speed that was a bit too fast, way too fast, actually, and it is now probably sitting there somewhere in the surface in a pile of some very expensive destroyed pieces that we can now consider junk.
Alas, that microphone is also part of that interplanetary junk pile, now.
So now 20 years later another probe is on its way to Mars with some cool tools like a little helicopter and some other neat things and also...2 microphones!
One, made from off the shelf parts, is going to supposedly let us listen to the wind as the probe enters the atmosphere and hopefully the sound of the landing parachutes being deployed but it is not expected to last long and will probably be destroyed...but it still might survive if it is lucky.
The other is part of the SuperCam System...it's main mission is to listen to the popping of rocks as they are hit by lasers and vaporized.
Those popping sounds should give scientists info about the hardness of those rocks and clues about the rock formations.
But here is the good part...we should also be able to hear other things going on around the probe...wheels turning, sand hitting the surface, wind gusts and maybe even the sounds of nearby dust devils which we have seen but never heard.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/finance/t...icrophones-to-hear-the-red-planet/ar-BB17l879
All this should happen if everything goes according to plan except...
as of this minute the stupid spaceship is already experiencing technical problems and has gone into hibernation!
https://news.yahoo.com/nasa-mars-spacecraft-experiencing-technical-065100271.html
They think they know what happened, it got a little too cold when it was still in earth's shadow and went to sleep to protect itself from harm.
Sigh.
It is out in open space now away from that shadow so they expect it to come back to life when it gets the correct instructions sent to it from Nasa.
I sure hope so.
I waited 20 years for another shot at listening to the sounds on another planet, I don't know how much more time I got if they lose this one, too.
Fingers crossed.
It had a microphone on board and when it landed and they turned it on we here in earth could actually listen to what it sounded like on another planet.
I was excited about this, I am never going to set foot on another planet but this was way cool...the pictures we get back from other probes are extremely great but by now this is old hat.
This mission was going to let us hear the sounds from another planet...something we never experienced before.
I waited as it made its trip to the red planet and then...nothing.
There was supposed to be a rocket that fired to slow it down as it entered the atmosphere pre landing and the best they can tell it did but then it cut off too early for some reason.
The result...instead of a soft landing it piled into the surface at a speed that was a bit too fast, way too fast, actually, and it is now probably sitting there somewhere in the surface in a pile of some very expensive destroyed pieces that we can now consider junk.
Alas, that microphone is also part of that interplanetary junk pile, now.
So now 20 years later another probe is on its way to Mars with some cool tools like a little helicopter and some other neat things and also...2 microphones!
One, made from off the shelf parts, is going to supposedly let us listen to the wind as the probe enters the atmosphere and hopefully the sound of the landing parachutes being deployed but it is not expected to last long and will probably be destroyed...but it still might survive if it is lucky.
The other is part of the SuperCam System...it's main mission is to listen to the popping of rocks as they are hit by lasers and vaporized.
Those popping sounds should give scientists info about the hardness of those rocks and clues about the rock formations.
But here is the good part...we should also be able to hear other things going on around the probe...wheels turning, sand hitting the surface, wind gusts and maybe even the sounds of nearby dust devils which we have seen but never heard.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/finance/t...icrophones-to-hear-the-red-planet/ar-BB17l879
All this should happen if everything goes according to plan except...
as of this minute the stupid spaceship is already experiencing technical problems and has gone into hibernation!
https://news.yahoo.com/nasa-mars-spacecraft-experiencing-technical-065100271.html
They think they know what happened, it got a little too cold when it was still in earth's shadow and went to sleep to protect itself from harm.
Sigh.
It is out in open space now away from that shadow so they expect it to come back to life when it gets the correct instructions sent to it from Nasa.
I sure hope so.
I waited 20 years for another shot at listening to the sounds on another planet, I don't know how much more time I got if they lose this one, too.
Fingers crossed.