NASA Deploys DPA to Mars
NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover took off on July 30, 2020 for a seven-month journey to the mysterious Red Planet. It touched down successfully on February 18, 2021 with a DPA 4006 Omnidirectional, an MMA-A Digital Audio Interface and an MMP-G Modular Active Cable in tow.
“Everything about the mission — from the launch to the landing — is hostile, insofar as a microphone is generally concerned. It’s very exciting to know that DPA was able to record something from so many millions of miles away, and have the sound travel back to us so quickly." – René Mørch, Product Manager at DPA Microphones
After the rover touched down, audio and video files were recorded from the surface and transmitted to NASA’s base station. NASA sent these files to DPA’s engineering team for processing and review.
The first to be rigged with microphones, the agency's latest Mars rover picked up the subtle sounds of its own inner workings during interplanetary flight.
The DPA 4006 Omnidirectional Microphone was devoted to capturing some or all of the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence of the Perseverance Rover when it landed on Mars in February, 2021, but it already started to record the sounds of the spacecraft as it hurtled through interplanetary space.
Until recently, no one had ever heard anything from within the Martian atmosphere. In fact, the first sounds were only heard on December 1, 2018. A highly-sensitive seismometer on board NASA's InSight Mars Lander recorded vibrations caused by Martian wind. In addition, the vehicle's air pressure sensor also recorded the sound of wind. The sounds were picked up by instruments made for other purposes than sound thus the recordings are analogies to what you could expect to hear.
To gain some further insights into the Martian soundscape, the Mars 2020 Rover was outfitted with audio equipment from DPA Microphones.
What DPA equipment made the trip?
For this partnership, NASA strenuously tested a variety of mics and chose a selection of equipment from DPA. The 4006 Omnidirectional Microphones was the Rover's "ears"; attached to the vehicle and paired with MMP-G Modular Active Cables, which will act as ultra-transparent preamplifiers. Inside the body of the vehicle, acting as the auditory part of the "brain", will be a MMA-A Digital Audio Interface. The MMA-A's job is to digitalize the audio in the highest quality and send it to a computer in the Rover through a USB connection.
The trip to Mars subjected the Rover to extreme temperatures (as low as -100°C/ -148°F), wildly varying travel pressure and intense vibrations. To ensure that the equipment landed on Mars in good working order, the spacecraft design team created a specialized enclosure to mount the MMA-A interface inside the rover chassis. In addition, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the DPA R&D team worked together to create a custom MMP-G amplifier housing to bolt onto the exterior of the Rover.
Besides the customized amplifier housing, no major changes were made to the equipment once it left the DPA factory. One of the riskiest parts of the mission, entry, descent and landing (EDL) tracks the Mars 2020 Rover from the time it enters the atmosphere until touchdown in the Martian dust. No one had ever seen or heard a parachute opening in the Martian atmosphere, the rover being lowered down to the surface of Mars on a tether from its descent stage, the bridle between the two being cut or the descent stage flying away after the Rover lands!
The DPA microphones' mission was to capture these sounds for NASA. Not only did this allow project engineers and scientists to hear the fascinating sounds of the Rover descending, the public was also able to follow along as well.
This trip to Mars is not the first time DPA has worked directly with NASA to capture the most accurate and transparent sound during their missions. Because of their durability and ability to capture extremely high sound pressure levels (like the liftoff of a space shuttle), DPA has been chosen by NASA a few times, the first time over 50 years ago.