Hacker News Reader

Comment by rwhitman | Hacker News Reader

I would like to see this result in a frustrated James Cameron building his own Mars probe for filmmaking

The lack of an on-board microphone could/should do that, too. :-) Pictures are a great, but a full-30fps video (with audio!) would greatly enhance our feeling of what it's like to be on the surface there.

Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so a microphone would capture very little data if any. Star Wars aside, there isn't much sound in the universe.

Mars is also windy, and microphones can be made to be very sensitive. Plus, there might be some interest in hearing the dust from one of the common dust storms hitting the rover.

Not a high priority in terms of data, but potentially interesting nonetheless.

It appears that NASA already sent a microphone to Mars.

And you can listen to it:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/lidar/microphone/mic_found.ht...

[Edit] Never mind, Mars Polar Lander crashed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Polar_Lander#Communication...

NASA sent microphones to Mars twice, but neither were used due to technical reasons (one because the vehicle crashed).

The martian atmosphere is extremely thin. Sound probably carries very poorly, so all you would realistically hear is the vibration from mechanisms on the rover itself.

I'm surprised he didn't just kick in his own funding. Is $10 million enough? $20 million? What's the price of going from being a director to a legend?

He's already a legend in my book: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/26/mariana-trench-ja...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com