First artist to broadcast music from another planet

On 28 August 2012, musician Will.i.am (USA, b. William Adams) premiered "Reach for the Stars" via NASA's Curiosity rover, beaming the song 560 million km (350 million mi) from the surface of Mars to the US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The collaborative project between NASA and the i.am.angel Foundation sought to teach and inspire youngsters through science.

In 2005, Paul McCartney sent a "wake-up call" to the International Space Station from a concert in Anaheim, California (the first live music concert broadcast to space). In 2008, "Across the Universe" by The Beatles became the first song beamed into deep space. "Reach for the Stars" was the first music broadcast from space.

At the launch of the project, a team from NASA spoke to students and invited celebrities about the rover and its objectives, and the technology behind the song's ground-breaking transmission from Mars.

"Reach for the Stars" (taken from the deluxe edition of Will.i.am's 2013 studio album #willpower) was not played on the Red Planet itself as Curiosity did not have speakers.

The song, co-written and co-produced by the Black Eyed Peas rapper/singer, highlights Will.i.am's "passion for science, technology and space exploration".

The Curiosity rover landed on Aeolis Palus, in Gale Crater, on 6 August 2012 to investigate the Red Planet's climate and geology, in preparation for future human exploration. As of 19 January 2018, Curiosity had been on Mars for 1,992 days.