August 6th

Today is the birthday of the Curiosity rover. Its birthday is assigned to the Earth calendar day it landed on Mars. That being said, this is the rover's 10th birthday. Curiosity used to sing happy birthday to itself, but eventually moved past it. There's something very bittersweet about a robot singing to itself, knowing nobody else would hear it, only for the decision to be made that it's not worth the effort to sing to no one. Well, to be fair Curiosity isn't alone-alone, as Percy and Zhurong are around on Mars too, but that's like saying I'm not lonely because there are people living in Alabama.

One detail people often misunderstand is how big Curiosity is. Most people assume, because of the "rover" name, that Curiosity is probably about the size of a dog. The truth is Curiosity is a 10 foot long six wheeler. The thing is, a few previous rovers, including the Sojourner rover from the 90's, were about dog sized, but then again the smaller rovers typically have a shorter lifespans. It's like what rat owners will tell you, they have personalities not unlike dogs or cats but they only have like 1/10 of the lifespan.