The Opportunity rover had met its death on Mars during a dust storm, but before that, nearly 30 miles over the perilous Martian surface have been traversed by the famous Mars rover. As thousands of images were sent by Oppy back to Earth, it sometimes felt like we were part of the journey. However, how did Curiosity sound like when it rolled with its metal wheels over Martian rocks and sand?
The sounds of Opportunity or Spirit, its partner, could not be transmitted as there were no microphones attached to them, but they must have kicked a ruckus as their wheels ground over dry dust and rocks. Some of the curious people among us might be happy to hear that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, California has rover testbeds, such as MarsYard, a large area designed to recreate the surface of the Red Planet.
Engineering models of rovers are there traversing a Mars-like terrain. Along with the science of sound, we can hear how the rovers sounded like, both on Mars and on Earth.
How Opportunity Mars rover sounded when it rolled its metal wheels over Martian rocks and dust
Metal wheels were cleated by Opportunity, and they would each have their own motor running at 2 inches per second over Martian rocks. The sound it would make it as similar to the one you would expect from a metal-wheeled robot moving over dirt. As the same time, an utter cacophony of screeches is presented by the larger Curiosity rover as its own metal wheels traverse the rocks of the MarsYard.
However, the principal research scientist at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Don Banfield, told Gizmodo that the way the sound travels through the air of Mars compared to Earth makes a “pretty big difference.” Our brains translate vibrations in air molecules into data that is more meaningful for them and then sounds happen, but the story is different on Mars. On the Red Planet, there are not enough molecules in the air to carry those high-frequency sounds, so at a farther distance for a Mars rover such as Opportunity was, you wouldn’t hear any noise that goes beyond 10,000 Hz.
