NASA's Mars rover sings itself a happy birthday

Now that it has spent one year on Mars, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's rover "Curiosity" marked the occasion by - how else? - singing "Happy Birthday" to itself.

 

A report on tech site CNET said the rover's Earth-bound engineers pulled off the feat by having its Sample Analysis at Mars vibrate to the notes of the classic song.

 

"This is a first for NASA and for the world and music brings us all together, so this is fun," CNET quoted Florence Tan, the SAM electrical lead engineer, as saying.

 

NASA considers August 5, the day Curiosity touched down on Mars, as its birthday.

 

Engineers marked the occasion by commanding Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) chemistry lab instruments to "sing" by vibrating at different frequencies.

 

"Usually, this resonance helps finely-ground samples of Mars dirt to filter through SAM for analysis — today, it had a whole different use," Discovery News said.

 

CNET said the song had been tested in an identical SAM unit on Earth before engineers relayed the instructions to Curiosity.

 

Still, Discovery News said this was the "loneliest 1st birthday party in the solar system… ever." — TJD, GMA News