Curiosity Rover on Mars Once Wished Itself ‘Happy Birthday’—and Then Became a Meme

Curiosity rover on Mars once celebrated its birthday by singing the "Happy Birthday" song. NASA's Curiosity rover is a spacecraft that is currently voyaging through the Red Planet, according to IFL Science. Its birthday is deemed to be August 5, because it was on this day in 2012 that the rover landed on Mars and began its epic journey. The rover did not have many companions in space, so it was a party of one, but now with the arrival of Perseverance, who knows? However, the earth scientists refused to allow the party to be uneventful. Some tweaks were made, and they managed to make the sample-analysis unit in the rover play the celebratory song. The whole incident soon became viral on the internet. 

Music of Curiosity Rover

The sample analysis unit's vibrations allowed the "Happy Birthday" song to be heard on Mars, according to The Atlantic. The sample analysis unit (SAM) is present in the rover's belly. SAM's main function is to collect the soil gathered by the rover's robotic arm. It is after the collection that vibration comes into play. Scientists incorporated the feature of vibrations into SAM to allow the equipment to distribute the soil into different small cups. SAM then heats the collected sample, whose released fumes are investigated for the presence of organic compounds. These vibrations were used on Curiosity's first birthday to produce a song.

Curiosity's First Birthday 

Florence Tan, the deputy chief technologist at NASA's Science Mission Directorate and also electrical lead engineer for Curiosity's SAM, along with her husband, Curiosity engineer Tom Nolan, had already understood that SAM could produce vibrations that sounded like music in 2007. Also, Nolan created a script of the popular lullaby "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" that could be played by SAM. Before August 5, 2013, the rover's team of scientists attempted to play "Happy Birthday" through vibrations in SAM's Earth counterpart.

The attempt was successful, which made them request Paul Mahaffy, the lead scientist on SAM, to do the same thing with the Curiosity rover's SAM. The pursuit was successful, and the rover sang "Happy Birthday" on faraway Mars. NASA released a video of this event, leaving the world in awe, leading to a flurry of memes, which keep reappearing every year. Most were directed at its loneliness, because it looked like a birthday party that none of his friends showed up at. 

Why does it not Happen Anymore?

The "Happy Birthday" was never repeated. Since then, the rover's birthday has gone without a song. On being asked why the feat was never repeated, Tan claimed that there was no advantage to it. "In a nutshell, there is no scientific gain from the rover playing music or singing 'Happy Birthday' on Mars," she said. Curiosity runs on nuclear energy, which is not abundant on Mars. Every single action costs energy, and therefore, the team wants to devote all of the rover's functions towards analysis and exploration, not celebratory songs. It, though, should not stop the world from celebrating the rover's coming of age, as it officially became a teenager this year.