In space, people actually can hear you scream (or sing), it turns out.
Groundbreaking data collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover is able to replicate how people would sound on Mars compared to Earth.
The space agency even boasts an online tool that allows Earthlings to simulate how they’d sound on the red planet from inside our homes.
That’s right: You can drop your own Mars bars in a round of interstellar karaoke.
To use it, simply go to the Sounds of Mars section on NASA’s website, navigate to the “You on Mars” tab, then “click and hold the button to record your greeting,” per the site.
Finally, download the audio file to hear how your voice sounds on Mars. After testing the function ourselves, The Post can safely say that those tin cans we spoke into as a kid to replicate “Martian speak” weren’t too far off.
“If you were standing on Mars, you’d hear a quieter, more muffled version of what you’d hear on Earth, and you’d wait slightly longer to hear it,” wrote NASA on their site. “Some sounds that we’re used to on Earth, like whistles, bells or bird songs, would almost be inaudible on Mars.”
The findings were part of a breakthrough study that calculated the speed of sound on the red planet.
To measure the speed of sound on the planet, the Perseverance rover fired a laser at a rock and recorded the noise it made on impact, per the findings unveiled at the 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Researchers then measured the time of the laser firing against that of sound reaching the recording device and compared it to sonic data on Earth’s surface. They clocked Mars’ slower speed of sound at 540 mph, compared to 760 mph on our home planet. This discrepancy was attributed to the fact that on Mars the atmosphere is “entirely different,” thereby affecting the way we perceive sound.
And while we’re not actually able to test our voices on Mars itself — at least not until at least 2026, anyway — armchair astronauts are also invited to use the Sounds of Mars tool to test how other Earthly noises would sound on the fourth rock from the sun. These include ocean waves, bicycle bells, city noises, the classical piano number “Clair de Lune” and even Neil Armstrong’s iconic “One small step for man” speech after his historical lunar landing.
That’s right, you can hear how someone sounds on the moon … on Mars.
The site also features various recordings that the Perseverance picked up during its fact-finding missions, including the droid driving, a laser that “zaps” a rock and even a helicopter flying over the planet.
In general, most sounded quieter and more muffled than on Earth, which NASA chalked up to the crimson space rock’s “very different temperature, density, and chemistry,” wrote the researchers.
“The sound level you’d hear would be automatically lower on Mars,” the findings continued. “The Martian atmosphere is about 100 times less dense than on Earth — that is, there’s just a lot less of it.
“The atmosphere of Mars, made up of 96% carbon dioxide, would absorb a lot of higher-pitched sounds, so only lower-pitched sounds would travel long distances,” NASA concluded.
In addition, sounds would take a lot longer to reach one’s ear due to the frigid Martian surface temperatures, which average around around -81 F.
