X

NASA Mars rover Curiosity wishes itself a happy 6th anniversary

But it didn't sing to itself, despite what you may have heard -- not this year, at least.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read

Happy sixth anniversary to the Mars Curiosity Rover, which tweeted out a little anniversary greeting to itself on Sunday.

"I touched down on #Mars six years ago," the tweet reads. "Celebrating my 6th landing anniversary with the traditional gift of iron... oxide. (It puts the red in Red Planet.)"

Curiosity landed at Bradbury Landing (named for the late sci-fi author Ray Bradbury) in Mars' Gale Crater back in 2012, and has been exploring Mars ever since.

Fans of Curiosity marveled at the image it shared. Wrote one Twitter user, "I love how impressive it is that what appears to be stones and mud, something so familiar, happens to be in fact another planet that no human has ever stepped a foot in. But we can still get a picture as if it was taken with your phone camera. Science rocks."

Some fans asked Curiosity about the widespread belief that the rover sings "happy birthday" to itself every year, but it turns out that's not quite right. "Did you stop and play happy birthday today?" asked one Twitter user. "(It's) moving to imagine Curiosity alone on Mars with happy birthday playing on a distant planet."

But another pointed out, correctly, that this was a one-time song, back in 2013. "I just read that he only sung it once, it's too much to coordinate for it to happen every year and no one can hear it on Mars either way," Tom Manners tweeted. "Curiosity only sung it for its first birthday in 2013 I believe.."

And that's correct: The rover only sang to itself for that first 2013 birthday/anniversary, using its sample analysis instrument to "hum" the tune. You can hear how it sounded in the following YouTube video shared by NASA .

Curiosity itself debunked the annual singing rumor in a tweet sent out last year to mark year No. 5.

59 Weird Objects Seen on Mars, Explained

See all photos