No, NASA¡¯s Mars Curiosity Rover Does Not Sing 'Happy Birthday' To Itself Every Year!
The Mars Curiosity Rover turned six this morning. While some headlines suggest that the rover sings &ldquoHappy Birthday&rdquo to itself it was actually just a one-time occurrence five years ago.
Happy sixth anniversary to the Mars Curiosity Rover!
While there are myriad ways to celebrate birthdays on Earth, all the Curiosity Rover has is just itself. Sadly, when the rover turned six this morning, it did not even get a ¡°Happy Birthday¡± song.
While some headlines suggest that the rover sings ¡°Happy Birthday¡± to itself, it was actually just a one-time occurrence.
Five years ago, NASA¡¯s Curiosity wished itself one.
NASA
The scientists also have a logic to it. Florence Tan, deputy chief technologist at NASA¡¯s Science Mission Directorate (and electrical lead engineer for Curiosity¡¯s sample-analysis unit), told The Atlantic: ¡°In a nutshell, there is no scientific gain from the rover playing music or singing ¡®Happy Birthday¡¯ on Mars.¡±
Singing uses power and Curiosity has a limited supply. Also, there¡¯s no point wasting the nuclear battery¡¯s finite supply.
The Curiosity even tweeted, just for the sake of clarification.
The reports of my singing are greatly exaggerated. I only hummed "Happy Birthday" to myself once, back in 2013. ?? https://t.co/wK3HGP2STY pic.twitter.com/o4b3AuVm1c
¡ª Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 4, 2017
"I touched down on #Mars six years ago," read another tweet. "Celebrating my 6th landing anniversary with the traditional gift of iron... oxide. (It puts the red in Red Planet.)"
