Mars Curiosity Rover Sings Happy Birthday To Itself! :-D

[KittyWampus]

One Earth year ago, the Curiosity rover completed a dramatic descent and landed safely on the surface of Mars. Cheers went up from space watchers around the world. On the back of a successful year of scientific exploration, it's time to celebrate once again.

NASA thinks of August 5, touch-down day, as the rover's birthday. Since nobody is willing to deliver a cake to Mars, the rover team had to settle for the traditional singing of "Happy Birthday." This was accomplished using Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. It "sang" the song by vibrating at different frequencies.

The song was tested in an identical SAM unit here on Earth before the instructions were sent to Curiosity. Since the song was played on Mars, it should be challenging for licensing agency ASCAP to shake down the rover for royalties.

"This is a first for NASA and for the world and music brings us all together, so this is fun," said Florence Tan, the SAM electrical lead engineer. Since one Mars year takes about 687 Earth days, perhaps Curiosity can look forward to another birthday party before its next Earth-years anniversary comes around.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57597122-1/mars-curiosity-rover-sings-happy-birthday-to-itself/

[NuclearDem]

1. Lucky little bugger.

He doesn't have to live on this planet.

Happy birthday, you little penile-drawing prankster, you!

[Electric Monk]

2. I wonder if they paid the licensing fee to Warner/Chappell, or did they "pirate" it?

[eridani]

3. Check out @SarcasticRover on Twitter

https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover

For those just joining, I'm reposting my best tweets to commemorate the first anniversary of being abandoned on Mars.

"At the rate the NASA budget is getting slashed, our next Mars mission will be an iPad launched with a trebuchet."

"When you wish upon a star, you probably die horribly because you're on a star and it's super hot and get off there, dummy!"

"I know 2.5 billion seems like a lot, but can you really put a price on learning that rocks on other planets are made of rock?"

Don't be sad, Detroit. Mars doesn't have any money either.

"Is it a mineral?"
"Yes."
"Is it a rock?"
"Also yes."
- Every single game of 20 Questions on Mars.

You CAN get blood from a stone, but it takes a laser & the stone yelling "I'm not a stone, I'm an astronaut from the future!" gets annoying.