100,000 robotic lawnmowers sing Happy Birthday to Mars rover

Robotic lawnmowers around the world have been updated to celebrate the Curiosity rover’s 10th year on Mars.

An unusual global harmony is taking place today to celebrate the birthday of the “loneliest robot in the universe”.

On this date in 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars. It celebrated the achievement a year later by singing Happy Birthday to itself. To save the robot’s battery, he never sang the song again.

The records of my singing are greatly exaggerated. I only hummed “Happy Birthday” to myself once, in 2013. 🎂🎵 https://t.co/wK3HGP2STY pic.twitter.com/o4b3AuVm1c

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 4, 2017

To celebrate 10 years on Mars, lawnmower manufacturer Husqvarna has given 100,000 of its robotic lawnmowers the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to their fellow robot.

Automower owners who want to participate can download the latest update, which gives their robotic lawnmower the singing capabilities.

Once installed, the machines will play a birthday tune today at 12:00 PM, 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM local time.

Husqvarna said its Automower machines have a small buzzer for alarms and sound notifications. The company’s engineers modified this buzzer to create a series of musical notes for the occasion.

It will be available on the 405X, 415X and 435X AWD Automowers.

While the Happy Birthday song hasn’t been sung to the Curiosity rover in a while, this isn’t the only anniversary party the robot has had. For its 4th anniversary, NASA released a small game on Android and iOS devices to spark interest in the rover’s mission.

The humble Curiosity rover said on Twitter that members of his team have a Question and answer event on Twitter Spaces, to celebrate the rover’s various achievements over the past decade.

And this won’t be the last time robotic lawnmowers sing, as Husqvarna plans to make the Happy Birthday song permanently available to Automower owners in September to “celebrate future family birthday celebrations.” Maybe the robots sing to the Curiosity rover every year.

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