The use of acoustics in space exploration

Abstract

In recent years increased attention has been paid to the potential uses of acoustics forextraterrestrial exploration. The extent to which acoustics per se is used in these studiesvaries greatly. First, there are the cases in which acoustics is simply the medium throughwhich some other time-varying non-acoustic signal (such as the output of a cosmic raydetector) is communicated to humans. Second, perturbations in a non-acoustic signal (e.g.EM) are interpreted through mechanisms relating to acoustic perturbations in the sourcematerial itself. Third, some probes have made direct measurements of acoustic signalswhich have been generated by the probe itself, as is done for example to infer the localatmospheric sound speed from the time-of-flight of an acoustic pulses over a shortdistance (O(10 cm)). Fourth, some studies have discussed ways of interpreting thenatural acoustic signals generated by the extraterrestrial environment itself. The reportdiscusses these cases and the limitations, implications and opportunities forextraterrestrial exploration using acoustics