The Mars Microphone

LIDAR

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The Planetary Society's Mars Microphone, built at the University of California Space Science Laboratory, was launched as part of the Mars Polar Lander mission on January 3, 1999. 

The Mars Microphone was constructed largely of off-the-shelf parts, including a microphone similar to those in hearing aids and a microprocessor chip used in speech recognition devices. 

The Mars Microphone is a small device, roughly 5 centimeters on a side and one centimeter thick, weighing less than 50 grams (less than two ounces) and using a small amount of power, less than 0.1 watt during its most active times. You can see how small the instrument is in the photo on this page (photo courtesy of Robin Weiner, Associated Press).

The microphone got a free ride to Mars in the Russian LIDAR instrument, courtesy of the Space Research Institute in Moscow, who integrated and tested the microphone in their experiment.

Sending a microphone to Mars was initially proposed by Society cofounder Carl Sagan. Janet Luhmann of the University of California at Berkeley, and David Juergens of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, teamed with the Planetary Society to make the Mars Microphone Project a reality.

IKI, Russia's Space Research Institute