Exploring the capabilities of microphone data from Mars to determine the properties of an extraplanetary atmosphere

几十年来，我们把相机送到了其他星球，但从来没有成功地听到过其中的声音。自20世纪90年代以来，雷顿一直认为从行星外环境获取声学数据是有用的，我们可以向这些环境发射探测器，比如木卫二的海洋和火星、金星、土卫六和木星的大气层。这个梦想在2021年实现了，毅力号探测器在火星上着陆。它的麦克风记录了空气动力学信号（例如，沙尘暴经过时的风噪），尘埃影响（当说沙尘暴正好经过毅力号时）和声学信号（100米远的伴随直升机无人机的旋翼叶片音调，独创性号；以及20米远的岩石冲击波，由毅力号的激光影响）。雷顿和约瑟夫于2023年2月被邀请到国际空间科学研究所查看毅力号的数据。这就是他们的见解的价值，他们已经是毅力小组论文（今天发表）中唯一的英国合著者，该论文展示了麦克风信号对科学研究火星大气特性的价值，这些特性目前是一个谜，比如地面附近的湍流和温度分布)。这个博士项目将分析来自“毅力号”的麦克风数据，为“毅力号”推荐获取新数据的任务，并在地球上进行实验，为下一个火星探测器任务设计麦克风阵列，以及未来的任务（麦克风现在已经分配给“泰坦”未来的蜻蜓直升机）。

For many decades, we have sent cameras to other worlds, but have never successfully listened to one. Since the 1990s, Leighton argued the usefulness of obtaining acoustic data from extraplanetary environment to which we could send probes, such as the moon Europa's oceans and the atmospheres of Mars, Venus, Titan and Jupiter. This dream was realised when, in 2021, the Perseverance rover landed on Mars. Its microphone has recorded aerodynamic signals (e.g. the wind noise of a passing dust devil), dust impacts (when said dust devil passed right over Perseverance) and acoustic signals (the rotor blade tones of the accompanying helicopter drone, Ingenuity from up to 100 m distant; and the shock waves from rocks up to 20 m distant that are impacted by Perseverance's laser).Leighton and Joseph were invited in February 2023 to the International Space Science Institute to view the Perseverance data. Such was the value of their insights, they are already the only UK co-authors on the paper (published today1) from the Perseverance team showing the value of microphone signals for science to investigate properties of the Martian atmosphere that are currently a mystery, such as the turbulence and temperature profile near the ground). This PhD project will analyse the microphone data that is still coming from Perseverance, recommend missions for Perseverance to take new data, and conduct on-Earth experiments to design the microphone array for the next Mars rover mission, and for future missions (a microphone has now been allocated to Titan's future Dragonfly helicopter).