Almost exactly one decade ago, the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in truly incredible fashion.1 One year later, the robot was programmed to hum “Happy Birthday” to itself, which is somehow simultaneously adorable and deeply sad. In subsequent years, however, there was no celebration.
This year, in a marketing gimmick that’s still worth writing about, robots on earth will do the singing. Autonomous home lawn mowers from Husqvarna will be able to serenade Curiosity, and that’s pretty great.
I don’t have a lawn, and thus have never shopped for a robot lawn mower. However, thanks to this stunt, I’ve learned that Husqvarna’s mowers look like tiny Batmobiles:
That’s pretty great too.
Footnotes:
While writing this post, I once again watched NASA’s “Seven Minutes of Terror” video. Everything about it still fills me with awe. ↩︎
