# Sounds from Mars

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 2, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224 "2003-06-02T21:25:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/1 "2003-06-02T21:25:30Z")

</div>

The failed Mars Polar Lander carried a [microphone](http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9911/01/mars.microphone/). Are any of the current Mars landers so equipped?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/2 "2003-06-02T22:48:26Z")

</div>

… and it picked up a voice calling, “Tars! Tars Tarkas!! … Drat, where **is** that boy?”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MrTuffPaws](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MrTuffPaws](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrTuffPaws)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/3 "2003-06-02T23:08:11Z")

</div>

Not that I know of, but why bother. All one would hear is “Grok this” and “Grok that”…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/4 "2003-06-02T23:09:39Z")

</div>

Naw, it was Tars Tarkas who smacked the Polar Lander with a blunt instrumrnt and busted it.  
🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/5 "2003-06-02T23:17:34Z")

</div>

Microphones? All right! Karaoke night!

“Somewhere…beyond the sea…somewhere, waiting for me… My lover stands on golden saaaaaaaands…”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sounds-from-mars/179224/6 "2003-06-02T23:42:36Z")

</div>

[http://plasma2.ssl.berkeley.edu/marsmic/](http://plasma2.ssl.berkeley.edu/marsmic/)

> [@](#):
>
> The original Mars Microphone instrument was constructed for the ill-fated NASA Mars Polar Lander (MPL) mission, which lost contact with Earth shortly after its descent to the Martian surface and was never recovered. Nevertheless, during the MPL mission we demonstrated that a low-cost (\<$100,000), small (25 cc) and lightweight (50g) instrument could be constructed for a major NASA planetary mission.
> 
> Interest in the Mars Microphone project was so intense that immediately following the loss of MPL, a second opportunity to fly the microphone experiment was provided by the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, on the NetLander mission to Mars in 2007. NetLander will land four small identical landers on Mars to study the atmosphere and the planetary subsurface and interior core. The Mars Microphone experiment is currently being redesigned to fit within the camera head of the NetLander probes being built by the German space agency (DLR).

Although that site hasn’t been updated in a while