Yes, but you could record few minutes of sound in the same amount of data taken by one high res photo. I think the good question is why 18 seconds specifically.

It's just 18 seconds so far. I doubt they sent the microphone just so they could use it once, but then I doubt sending hours of audio was at the top of the priority list for the first few days of the mission.

Maybe after they complete their primary and secondary mission objectives, they'll find spare time and compute to stream a couple hours of Martian ambience. Does NASA have a suggestion box for after hours / extended program experiments?

I doubt a NASA suggestion box open to the internet will be very fruitful.

I for one look forward to Rover McRoverface in the 2022 launch window.

Marvin McMarsface is to take a close-up look at the Face On Mars in 2023 and then implant an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator to eliminate Mars because it obstructs our view of Venus.

> I doubt a NASA suggestion box open to the internet will be very fruitful.

The two resectful and fun comments between 'this' comment and your comment.

I can imagine a Tumblr/Reddit re-post would be more fun, but-yes-not for the NASA suggestion box. They would have 1 diamond idea every 100k unusable ones.

I can imagine every gaming company would LOVE to have the original Mars sound in their games (e.g. "No Man's Sky").

In a world where the sounds of sports on TV is not even the true sound of what's happening in the stadium because it's boring, I highly doubt they would pay a single penny for what would probably be a highly disappointing wind-like monotonous sound.