Will.i.am song blasts to Mars and back, via Curiosity

LOS ANGELES -Reuters

In this image released by NASA on Monday, Aug. 27, 2012, a chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this color image from NASA's Curiosity rover showing the base of Mount Sharp, the rover's eventual science destination. AP Photo

NASA's Curiosity rover is making global headlines as it travels uncharted territory on Mars, and it will venture into new realms back on Earth this week when it premieres a new will.i.am song.
 
The Black Eyed Peas rapper's tune "Reach For The Stars" will be broadcast live from the surface of Mars, via Curiosity, at 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EDT/2000 GMT) on Tuesday to a news conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the organization said in a statement on Monday.
 
The debut of the song, described as an ode to the singer's "passion for science, technology and space exploration," will be linked to an educational event in which members of the Curiosity team will explain the song's transmission across space to students, as well as the rover's overall mission.
 
The project is a collaboration between NASA and the rapper's i.am.angel Foundation, which aims to provide digital resources in classrooms from kindergarten to grade 12.
 
The foundation will announce a new science, technology, arts, engineering and mathematics initiative featuring the Mars Curiosity Rover and other NASA assets.