On August 5 , 2012 ( in the U.S. , at least ) , NASA ’s Curiosity rover land on Mars . The bird of passage ’s ongoing mission on the foreign planet is one of exploration , gather information about Mars ’ climate and geology . Because Curiosity ’s ocean trip to Mars is intended to be a one - fashion tripper — we do n’t yet have a fashion to plunge interplanetary shuttles from Mars to Earth — the rover acts as a mobile laboratory , able to do varied experiments while on Mars ' surface . Some of those experiments require geologic samples , so Curiosity needs a style to collect the sample and then move them into the lab region of its confines .
To do this , Curiosity is outfitted with a grouping of instruments known conjointly as SAM , which stands for “ Sample Analysis at Mars . ” The SAM squad , from Earth , instructs the rover to create a serial of vibrationswhich manipulate the position of Curiosity ’s collection gadget . In turn , those gimmick — now moving at NASA ’s command — collect samples from the surface and move the malicious gossip into the analytic thinking area of the gimmick . As a side effect , like any other shakiness , the ones sent from Earth to Mars result in a serial of harmonics . Typically , the sounds are none too pleasant , and could scarcely be considered music . But August 5 , 2013 was a special day .
On that day , as come across above , the SAM team ship a sequence of vibrations consisting of carefully - planned peaks and valleys . Those palpitation were n’t intended to collect samples from Mars ' surface .
They were sent to tick off the fact that Curiosity had landed there a class prior
— in song . If you wish to listen , that ’s a screenshot from a NASA television available
here
, and you ’ll immediately recognize the tune as that from " glad Birthday . "
So unless an modern refinement lived on Mars long ago , or unless Elvis really is n’t dead and instead relocated to a place a small further from the Sun , " Happy Birthday " was the first song every play on the planet Mars .
