NASA, SAM celebrate Curiosity's birthday the traditional way

On August 5, 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover made its perfect landing in the Gale Crater on perhaps the most elusive planet in the universe – Mars – marking the beginning of the historic space mission.

Since it is on this day that Curiosity landed on Mars, NASA wants to celebrate it as the rover’s birthday. Incidentally, SAM or Sample Analysis at Mars, the organic chemistry lab on Curiosity too celebrates its birthday on this day.

What’s interesting though is that Curiosity, which is currently navigating on faraway Mars, was not left out of the celebrations. Guys at SAM decided to play the “Happy Birthday” song on Curiosity to ring in the celebrations, and the song was audible to anyone on Mars. They achieved this impressive feat using the SAM instrument by producing vibrations at different frequencies. You can catch the birthday song in the video below.

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While taking viewers through the process, Florence Tan, the SAM electrical lead engineer said: “This is a first for NASA and for the world and music brings us all together, so this is fun.”

Almost as soon as it landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, Curiosity rover began sending thumbnail images. This Mars rover covered approximately 352 million miles (567 million kilometres) and 36 weeks after being launched from Earth, before it finally landed in the Gale crater.