Ep. 143 Microphones On Mars

The original Alien movie had the immortal tagline "In space, no one can hear you scream".  Thanks to Extraterrestrial Audio Engineer Jason Achilles, that may no longer be true.  Hired by NASA in 2017, he was tasked with finding the perfect microphone to capture the landing sequence of the new Mars Rover.  That is no small feat.  The microphone has to be rugged enough to survive extreme temperature shifts, sand storms, interplanetary space, and a supersonic landing- not to mention being sensitive enough to capture audio in an atmosphere that is 1% that of Earth's.  We get into the details of which microphone is up to that historic task, and we also discuss Knight Rider, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Space Camp, and Astronaut Ice Cream.