Environmental Acoustic Reconnaissance and Sounding (EARS) Instrument for Mars Exploration

The Environmental Acoustic Reconnaissance and Sounding experiment (EARS), is a dual instrument suite composed of the Environmental Acoustic Reconnaissance (EAR) and Environmental Acoustic Sounding Experiment (EASE) instruments. This experiment is currently supported by Italian Space Agency (ASI) for its development in order to be inserted in the Mars Surveyor Program framework [1]. The main objective of the EAR instrument is listening in Mars. This is a most significant experiment if one thinks of every day life experience where hearing is possibly the most important sense after sight. Not only will this contribute to opening up this important area of planetary exploration which has been essentially ignored up until now, but this will bring the general public closer in contact with our most proximate planet. The Environmental Acoustic Sounding Experiment (EASE) is directed at obtaining acoustic propagation parameters, such as sound speed and attenuation, and will provide information regarding important correlated phenomena; in particular, the specific heat capacity, heat conductivity and shear viscosity of the Martian atmosphere, which will provide specific constraints in determining its physical and chemical composition particularly in regard to its water vapor content.