August 17, 2012 12:52

The Beatles and The Doors' music played on Mars during NASA mission

Anthrax and the theme from 'Star Wars' also used to wake up Mars Curiosity robot

Photo Gallery: The Beatles
Photo: Pa Photos

NASA have revealed that they use songs by artists including The Beatles and The Doors to wake up their Mars Curiosity robot each morning.

The space buggy landed on the Red Planet last month and, in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, NASA employee Eric Blood unveiled the playlist of 'wake-up-calls' for the remote-controlled robot, which also included Anthrax and the theme tune from Star Wars.

Blood, who works in surface systems, said that the robot was "less cranky with a good wakeup song". He then listed some of the tracks used to stir the Curiosity into life, including 'Good Morning Good Morning' by The Beatles, 'Got The Time' by Anthrax, The Doors' 'Break On Through' and Frank Sinatra's 'Come Fly With Me'.

He also named a number of movie scores, including the theme for Mission Impossible, and classical music such as Wagner's composition 'The Ride Of The Valkyries'.

Earlier today, meanwhile, Britney Spears made contact with the Curiosity via Twitter and sent it a link to the video for her 2000 single 'Oops… I Did It Again', which is set on Mars. "So @MarsCuriosity... does Mars look the same as it did in 2000?" she wrote, prompting a reply of: "Hey Brit Brit. Mars is still looking good. Maybe someday an astronaut will bring me a gift, too. Drill bits crossed ;)"

You can read NME's list of the best songs about Mars here.

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