Mars 2020, the successor to the Curiosity rover, is currently under development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The robotic explorer is expected to land on the Red Planet in the next decade, and could carry with it a very special instrument: the first Mars microphone.
For the past 50 years we’ve been exploring our closest planetary neighbor, Mars, with the help of a fleet of robotic space probes. We’ve learned that Mars was once very similar to Earth; that the harsh conditions were once more hospitable, and the barren world could have supported life. We’ve got our most convincing evidence yet that Mars may have traces of liquid water on its surface today, and we’re beginning to understand how Mars lost its atmosphere. What our trusty robotic pals cannot do, however, is tell us what Mars sounds like.
At least, not yet.
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