Microphone

[OrLoK 20]

Hello there

Me again :)

I think only Beagle or another failed mission to Mars was the only one ever to have a microphone on board, will we be able to *listen* to Mars?

I know because of the atmosphere density that the frequency of sounds will be altered and they wont be the same as they would be on earth.

Is this possible and is it in the scope of the release?

It's a small and possibly peculiar suggestion I know, but there are a lot of Marsophiles who wanted to have a good listen.

Apparently there's actually some reading that one of Curiosities lasers could take to give a digital approximation of sound, but I would dearly love to hear an accurate representation of what Mars and it's storms sound like.

Rgds

LoK

Edited June 29, 2013 by orlok
grammar

[dram 14]

Well we did some research with regards to this, as I wanted to get the sound relatively accurate (while not going overboard). Ignoring the fact that listening with your ears would be impossible (due to them swelling up in the low pressure environment), using a microphone would result in a pitch shift downward (due to a primary atmospheric make-up of CO2), while volume would be lowered significantly. In TOM, we have simulated the pitch shift, but not the volume shift. It would be trivial to do so, but would feel rather pointless to be honest. We also calculate the speed of sound but do not use it at this point precisely, as the difference is not that large.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Dram

[OrLoK 20]

Hello there

Splendid to hear that little touches like the pitch shift are incorporated. I agree with the volume tweak. However if there is any sort of Mars encyclopedia/info app bundled in the game it might be nice to have some sound effects/music that once could compare to it's Mars equivalent.

Rgds

LoK

[comp_uter15776 1]

It would also be a bit awkward recording such sounds surely... I mean, one can hardly just build their own rover and launch it to Mars :P

[illectro 10]

The pitch shift will only happen to sounds generated by oscillations in an air column, but things like motors won't be affected because the sound if being generated by a solid device.

Microphones on Mars have had a hard time, the first one was on Mars Polar Lander which crashed, then one was planned for Phoenix, but a technical problem meant that it was never used (http://www.msss.com/msl/mardi/news/12Nov07/index.html)

[dram 14]

The pitch shift will only happen to sounds generated by oscillations in an air column, but things like motors won't be affected because the sound if being generated by a solid device.

Microphones on Mars have had a hard time, the first one was on Mars Polar Lander which crashed, then one was planned for Phoenix, but a technical problem meant that it was never used (http://www.msss.com/msl/mardi/news/12Nov07/index.html)

Well pitch shift is also dependent on medium, and considering the Martian atmosphere is primarily CO2, sounds will be lower-pitch (to what we are used to on Earth that is), which we do simulate.

[illectro 10]

No no, if you have a tuning fork generating middle C it'll oscillate at the same frequency regardless of whether it's in Air, hydrogen, CO2 or even a vacuum. It won't sound any different in any of those atmospheres. But, if you have say a flute which depends on the oscillations in an air column it will generate different notes as the atmosphere changes.

[Matt W 10]

If you hear sound underwater, it's muted and muffled, but the pitch is the same.

Or watch Scott's video here:

You'll note that Scott's voice doesn't really change pitch; only the timbre is affected. Higher frequencies resonate more in the helium infused vocal cavity and thus are amplified more. There are some sound samples here that demonstrate this more directly:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/speechmodel.html

[dram 14]

Hmm, interesting. Appears I need to update my knowledge on this. :)