NASA Joins Musician will.i.am, Discovery Education for Premiere of Song from Mars

Ann Marie Trotta/Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington                                         

202-358-1601/1726

ann.marie.trotta@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold an educational event to share findings about Mars with students and premiere a new song by musician will.i.am that will be broadcast from the surface of the Red Planet via the Curiosity rover. The event will take place at 1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT) Tuesday, Aug. 28, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.

Members of the team that successfully landed the rover on Mars earlier this month will explain to students the mission and the technology behind the song's interplanetary transmission. will.i.am will then premiere "Reach for the Stars," a new composition about the singer's passion for science, technology and space exploration.

will.i.am's i.am.angel Foundation, in partnership with Discovery Education of Silver Spring, Md., a provider of digital resources to kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms, will announce a new science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics initiative featuring NASA assets such as the Mars Curiosity Rover.

The event will be streamed on the agency's website and broadcast on NASA TV at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

Media attending the event will be able to ask questions. Media interested in attending must contact the JPL Media Relations office by 9 a.m. PDT, Tuesday at 818-354-5011. Reporters who have responded must arrive by 11:30 a.m. for admittance to the event. JPL is located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive.

NASA's Curiosity rover continues to reach new milestones as it begins its exploration mission to help scientists discover if Mars has ever been hospitable to life.

For more information about Curiosity and Mars exploration, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mars.

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov/education.

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