One small step for man…. One giant leap for Will.i.am
By Jennifer Ellegard on Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Will.i.am broke into the record books today as his new track, ironically titled ‘Reach for the stars’, became the first song ever to be transmitted to Earth from another planet.
It seemed only apt that Will.i.am, known for being at the forefront of advertising emerging technology, including performing wearing an Ipad helmet of his own face, should take on this meteor of a challenge.
Not wanting a bog-standard computer produced record for such a feat, he opted for a 40-piece orchestra to accompany his track, describing it as being more ‘timeless’. The full 4 minutes and twenty seconds of the song were beamed more than 300 million miles from NASAs Mars rover Curiosity yesterday at 8pm (GMT) to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California as part of an effort on behalf of the Black Eyed Pea to inspire the young generation to take an interest in science.
The song, with lyrics that include ‘I know that Mars might be far/ but baby it ain’t really that far’ was made even more poignant by the recent death of astronaut Neil Armstrong on Saturday.
