Sunday, August 19, 2012

There will be moshing on Mars

Source: Horns Up Rocks

Today in weird music news, Anthrax became the first metal band played on Mars by the Curiosity rover. I pulled this article from the Facebook group "I Fucking Love Science." Of course it begs the questions as to why a robot needs a wake-up call. Or is it that the Mars scientists are closet metal-heads? Regardless, I want the Mars robot DJ gig. Anyone have an in at NASA?

Ever wondered what the first metal band played by the Curiosity rover on Mars would be? Wonder no more! On day 6 Anthrax became the first metal band played on Mars by Curiosity, when their 1990 track ‘Got the Time’ was played on the Martian
surface as part of Mars rover Curiosity’s daily wake-up playlist.

As Anthrax's Scott Ian put it: "yes, there will be moshing on Mars."

The first metal band played on Mars was by Opportunity in 2004 - on day 12 the rover played Motörhead's 'Leaving Here' while it went for its first drive.

The people who choose the playlist clearly have a great sense of humour - The Mars rover Spirit played 'I Touch Myself' by the Divinyls when the rover examined itself with instruments on day 92.

Other music Curiosity has played: ‘Echelon’ by 30 Seconds To Mars; The Beatles ‘Good Morning Good Morning’; Good Morning, Good Morning from Singin' in the Rain; the Star Wars theme; the theme from "Mission Impossible"; Break on Through by The Doors; Got My Mind Set on You by George Harrison; Simon and Garfunkel's cover of the Everly Brothers' "Wake Up Little Susie"; Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra; and Wagner’s ‘The Ride Of The Valkyries’.

You can check out the morning playlists for Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit here: http://www.mit.edu/~jfc/MER%20Soundtrack.html

Anthrax - Got the Time
Buy: Persistence of Time (1990)

Motörhead - Leaving Here
Buy: Bomber (2001)

2 comments:

Professor Strangewiener said...

Did you know that Lemmy was in a cool space-rock band called Hawkwind and he wrote a song called "Motorhead" long before his own band???

Anonymous said...

Should have played "Uncle Sam's On Mars" by Hawkwind!