On Tuesday, August 28 at 4 p.m. Eastern Time, pop music got another first…a song debuted from the Mars Curiosity Rover. Singer-songwriter-producer will.i.am, best known as a member of the group Black Eyed Peas, released his single "Reach For the Stars", carried live on NASA’s online live TV channel during a Jet Propulsion Lab Mars Special.
A stunt or something more? Will.i.am., according to NASA, has a “passion for science, technology, and space exploration,” and he used the opportunity to promote science education and his i.am.FIRST education foundation. For young people, the debut melds science, technology, and music.
Back in the 60s, when David Bowie was singing about Major Tom in his hit "Space Oddity", space exploration was indeed an oddity. The whole world stopped to watch the Apollo moon shots on television, from the first orbit of Apollo 8 at Christmas, to Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” to the Apollo 13 near-disaster.
In the same week that saw the passing of Neil Armstrong, the song debut shows how space exploration has become commonplace since the heady days of the space program.
According to Los Angeles Times science writer Armina Khan, will.i.am produced a back-to-school special about student robotics programs that caught the eye of NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden. Bolden then got will.i.am. involved, asking for some fresh ideas to promote science careers to kids.
Khan said that the artist’s first idea was rejected as undoable—a concert during a launch. His Plan B, however, had legs—to load a song onto the Curiosity Rover that would be broadcast back to Earth.
Will.i.am then wrote “Reach For the Stars” to include a 40-piece orchestra, and cross music genres and thus cross cultures. He was on hand at the JPL, speaking to 53 high schools from the i.am. College Track Center in Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles and others to promote math, science, and engineering education.
The artist wants to “encourage kids to see this [these disciplines] as a really cool career choice, just as much as, say, actor, musician, or international superstar like himself,” said Khan in an LA Now video blog.
To add to the fun, Curiosity Flight Director Bobak Ferdowski—who became a viral “rock star” in his own right during the Curiosity flight and landing as Mohawk Guy with his stars-and-stripes Mohawk—hit the “play” button to start the broadcast. Interestingly, the day after the broadcast, Ferdowski served as a guest DJ on the online radio station Third Rock Radio.
For more information about the song and the will.i.am education programs, see the story on the Look to the Stars Web site.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 7 No. 4 21st Century Teaching: Lessons That Are Challenging, Relevant, and Reflective
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 8 No. 3 Dancing Through Science…and Math … and More?
Additional ISM resources for Consortium Gold members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 35 No. 3 The 21st Century School: Curriculum and Technology
