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NASA's Playlist for the Mars Rover Mission
TaddyPorter writes "'It has become somewhat of a NASA tradition that during missions to space a wake-up song is played at the beginning of each day's mission.' Over at atsnn.com a NASA Mars mission manager contributed their playlist. What's even more interesting is what song has been played and why, for instance, when NASA lost communications S.O.S by ABBA was played and when the system experienced a flash problem the Flash Gordon theme song by Queen was used."
TOP STORY: NASA gets into the Groove!
...", Air bags not cooperating.)
Posted by: Kano
On: Sat February, 21 2004 @ 02:07 GMT
ATSNN.com Exclusive
It has become somewhat of a NASA tradition that during missions to space a wake-up song is played at the beginning of each day's mission. Such wake-up Music was played to shuttle crews at the commencement of their daily activities. Wake-up music was also played for the teams controlling the Pathfinder mission to Mars in 1997 at the beginning of each Sol's activities. Wake-up music has made a triumphant return for the current Rover missions on Mars.
The function of the Wake-Up Music is as it would suggest, to 'wake-up' the mission team and get them focused on the days activities. As we will see the selection is often a little bit tongue-in-cheek. The music was originally played for the team around the time that the "sweep" was transmitted to the Rover shortly after it woke up. This sweeps the transmit frequency so the Rover's receiver can lock onto it. This occurs at around 8.45AM local time (at the landing site). However this meant the song was being played before many of the team members came-in, so the time was subsequently shifted to 10AM local time. By this time most of the crew are on station and ready to begin the Sol's activities. Sol is the term for a Martian 'Day'. One Martian Sol is 39.5 minutes longer than one Earth Day.
The song (sometimes songs) for each Sol are typically chosen by the Mission Managers, in the case of Spirit this is Dr. Mark Adler. The songs are chosen for a link they have with the planned activities for the day. The selections are often quite humorous. Dr. Adler was kind enough to give ATSNN the full list of songs played on the Spirit Mission so far.
Sol 2: Good Morning, Good Morning, by the Beatles.
Sol 3: Oh What a Beautiful Mornin', by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Sol 4: Hail to the Chief, by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (Presidential phone call.)
Sol 5: Satisfaction, by the Rolling Stones. ("I can't get no
Sol 6: Get Up, Stand Up, by Bob Marley. (Lift mechanism actuated.)
Sol 7: Da Da Da, by Casaca. (Brazilian song suggested by investigator from Brazil, RRGTM student that week from Brazil.)
Sol 8: Soak Up the Sun, by Cheryl Crow. (Laid-back sol.)
Sol 9: I Can See Clearly Now, by Jimmy Cliff. (Picture taking sol.)
Sol 10: Unchained, by Van Halen; Hit the Road Jack, by Buster Poindexter; Turn, Turn, Turn, by the Byrds. (Cable-cutting, backup on deck. start turn on deck.)
Sol 11: I Get Around, by the Beach Boys; Round and Round, by Ratt; You Spin Me 'Round, by Thalia. (Rest of turn on deck.)
Sol 12: Born to be Wild, by Steppenwolf; Rawhide, by Riders in the Sky; Who Let The Dogs Out?, by the Baha Men. (Egress.)
Sol 13: Reach Out, by the Four Tops. (First arm activity.)
Sol 14: You've Got The Magic Touch, by The Platters. (Touching arm down on Mars.)
Sol 15: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, by Sting; Roam, by The B-52's; Good Times Roll, by The Cars. (Last engineering activities, first drive on the surface.)
Sol 16: After Midnight, by Eric Clapton; Trash Day, by Weird Al Yankovic. (Crew starts Mars day after California midnight, part of the sol dedicated to deleting contents of flash.)
Sol 17: We Will Rock You, by Queen. (First arm activities and observations on a rock.)
Sol 18: Sledgehammer, by Peter Gabriel. (Intended first RAT sol, though ran into problems later, to put it mildly.)
Sol 19: S. O. S., by Abba. (Objective was to regain contact with Spirit after a loss of communications. We did.)
Sol 20: Baby, Talk To Me, from the musical Bye Bye Birdie. (Objective was to get Spirit to send data. We did.)
Sol 21: Satellite, by The Hooters. (A rousing lullaby for when we were trying, and succeeded, to get the rover to go to sleep. We did.)
Sol 22: We Can Work It Out, by The Beatles. (Beginning debugging activities to get Spirit back t