(PCM) Who ever thought that thinking about the Mars Curiosity Rover could bring out the feels? That is exactly what happens when we think about the fact that the lonely little Rover is programmed to sing “Happy Birthday” to itself each and every year on the anniversary of it’s landing on desolate planet of Mars.
NASA considers August 5, the day the Curiosity Rover first successfully touched down on Mars, to be the Rover’s birthday. Since we are pretty sure there is no cake and ice cream available on the Red Planet, as a way to celebrate the team at NASA programmed the Curiosity to sing “Happy Birthday” to itself, it’s kind of sad in a way, right? We keep thinking about this poor little metal contraption roaming it’s way around a mysterious and somewhat dangerous planet all by its’ lonesome playing the saddest rendition of “Happy Birthday” ever created.
NASA engineers were able to program the Curiosity to play the tune by having the Rover’s sample analysis unit vibrate at various frequencies to move around soil samples. These noises, by themselves, sound very similar to the noises you would hear coming from robot’s in your favorite sci-fi film, however when they are all strung together a very eerie rendition of “Happy Birthday” is created.
The Curiosity Rover will celebrate what is probably the loneliest birthday in universe, however it provides NASA with many gifts each and every day. The Rover has captured countless images and studied various soil and rock samples on Mars giving us a look at the mysterious planet that we never thought possible. Happy Birthday, little Rover, don’t roll too far way!
