back to article Curiosity rover hijacked by will.i.am to debut science song

On Tuesday NASA is pimping out its Curiosity rover to silly-named songster will.i.am so that he can use it to premiere his latest song Reach for the Stars. The song, which NASA says is "a new composition about the singer's passion for science, technology, and space exploration," will be uploaded by the rover and sent back to …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If

    The Martians get a whiff of that song they will feel insulted and they will invade,

    Or

    Consider the human race a bunch of imbeciles that offer no danger to the rest of the universe.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If

      "Consider the human race a bunch of imbeciles that offer no danger to the rest of the universe."

      "Mostly Harmless" -I think

      Thanks Douglas !

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If

      Or consider the human race a bunch of imbeciles whose stupidity could infect the rest of the universe.

      1. cyborg
        Joke

        Re: If

        Or consider the human race a bunch of imbeciles who would be ideal for broadcast 24/7 as cheap entertainment fodder.

  2. Not That Andrew
    Flame

    If Tom Lehrer is too old hat NASA, why can't they play some JoCo? I hope that talentless publicity hound who I refuse to name is paying them a Metric Fucktonne for this waste of time and space.

  3. Notas Badoff
    Mushroom

    I'll be calling yoouu-oooouuu-ooooouuuu

    Slim Whitman from orbit - it's the only way to be sure....

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Alien

    HAL sang too, so why not. Though I don't see why.

    "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do..."

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Black Out WillIAm

    I'm sick of this talentless **** always in the news. Can we have a news blackout on this idiot?

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Black Out WillIAm

      Yes, please. I was sad when he was on the landing-night NASA TV coverage, and that's when I switched to the no-PR media channel.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Re: Black Out WillIAm

      Seconded. Self serving publicity whore who does not deserve any accolade such as this, the olympics or any media attention.

      Other than crone out a few ultimately crappy pieces of aural excrement, exactley WHAT has he done to deserve this....

      Pointless twat....

      PS. NASA. WTF???????

      1. h4rm0ny
        Happy

        Re: Black Out WillIAm

        "Seconded. Self serving publicity whore who does not deserve any accolade such as this, the olympics or any media attention."

        You could as easily apply the principle in the other direction and say Curiosity is a "publicity whore" for trying to ride on Will.i.am's publicity. Like it or not he is very successful and well-known. So this will increase publicity for Curiosity just as it increases publicity for Will.i.am. It's a synergy, objectively speaking. This will bring both Curiosity and Science the attention of many who would otherwise be only dimly aware of it. It's a goooood thing. Just because some people here are proud of not liking his music, that shouldn't mean they are against things that raise the profile of this amazing mission.

        Whacha' gonna do with all that junk? All that junk inside that trunk?

        Amma gonna get to, get to Mars. Get to Mars in the Gaa-le Crater..

        Will.i.am

        1. Stuart Moore

          Re: Black Out WillIAm

          Downvoted for use of Synergy in cold blood.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Black Out WillIAm

          "Just because some people here are proud of not liking his music, that shouldn't mean they are against things that raise the profile of this amazing mission."

          Methinks you have somehow missed the point if you believe this to be about his music...

          The downvotes tend to lend credence to this...

      2. Lusty
        WTF?

        Re: Black Out WillIAm

        "Other than crone out a few ultimately crappy pieces of aural excrement, exactley WHAT has he done to deserve this...."

        Other than producing many songs which millions of people enjoy and bought, sending him to number one many times over? Or coming from absolutely nothing to become a multimillionaire in a short space of time? Or helping other artists to attain the same thing? Or starting a car production company in his home town in order to provide jobs for hundreds of people? Or the charity work he's done? Or the successful fashion company he started?

        I'm curious, WTF have YOU done that gives you such a superior attitude towards someone as hard working and successful as Will.I.Am? Or is it just that you're a useless so and so on the internet who doesn't like his name?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Black Out WillIAm

          I've done nothing to deserve such an accolade but that doesn't automatically mean he deserves this...

          There are FAR more deserving artists whom deserve having their songs broadcast across time and space than that pointless farty little upstart....

    3. NomNomNom

      Re: Black Out WillIAm

      uhh have you just arrived by timemachine? blacking out people was acceptable about 30 years ago. nowadays it's 100% racist.

      1. Alex C
        Meh

        Re: Black Out WillIAm

        As far as I was aware black out has no racist connotations - it was used during the war to hight light from invading pilots, or by smugglers in yesteryear to avoid detection by coastguards.

        As for Will.i.am - I'm not really a fan but I don't see how it does any harm. He is, at least, pretty inoffensive.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Twa.Tua.Re

      Anyone else find it ironic that this same twonk who was responsible for all those shitty songs with autotuned vocals was also hired to appear as a judge on a TV *singing talent* show. (Wikipedia confirms that it was "The Voice", apparently)

      You couldn't make this stuff up... well, you could, but why bother when the BBC have already wasted your license fee on this tosser for real?

      Still, it's terribly sad how Will.I.Am and the Black Eyed Peas have fallen in the past decade, starting from their career high of overrated mediocrity ("Where is the Love") to recent years that involved them covering the charts in an endless diarrhetic stream of some of the most consistently worthless **** ever.

      1. h4rm0ny
        Thumb Up

        Re: Twa.Tua.Re

        Congratulations on becoming your parents.

  6. Scaffa
    Thumb Up

    "It's not clear if the song is already on Curiosity. Given the rover only has about 2GB of flash memory, will.i.am's song could be an even bigger waste of space than usual"

    I think this is the funniest thing i've read on the internet all year. Thanks!

  7. ElDuderino

    War of the World's (Worst Music)

    Imagine the scene: aliens from across the galaxy, hiding on Mars, in possession of advanced technology that has allowed them to remain undetected for years, and biding their time observing Earth before they decide if they will share the wonders of the universe with us.

    A couple weeks ago: behold! The so-called primitive species landed a highly advanced space exploration vehicle, using a sophisticated landing sequence.

    "These humans are not as backward as we'd thought! Perhaps it is time that we make ourselves known and establish a brotherhood of sentient beings... wait, what is that sound? Make it stop! Where's the volume control? Is there no off switch?"

    "These humans are clearly malevolent creatures, bent on torturing all who cross their paths. We must destroy them before they destroy our taste in music! Now where did I put my Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator?"

    1. ElNumbre
      Megaphone

      Re: War of the World's (Worst Music)

      Or in Martian:

      ooooh laaaa!

  8. stucs201
    Facepalm

    Wrong artist

    If Curiosity is equiped to handle music then they're getting it to play the wrong thing. Just get it to play a certain Bowie track and see if anyone answers the question...

  9. David Given
    WTF?

    Does Curiosity have speakers?

    Are they actually *playing* it? Or is it just a pretty pointless exercise in uploading and downloading data?

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Does Curiosity have speakers?

      Music is played over the communications link as a "wake-up call" (and sometimes at other points during the day) each solar day during many NASA missions, and is a tradition carried over from the manned space program.

      Will.i.am isn't the first artist whose music has been sent to Curiosity, and won't be the last. On Sol 6 Anthrax became the first metal band "played" on Mars. You can find wake-up playlists for this and other NASA missions using your favourite internet search engine.

      I'm not a fan of the guy's music but I am a big fan of the fact that he's exploiting his popularity to advocate and popularise science and technology.

      1. David Given
        WTF?

        Re: Does Curiosity have speakers?

        I know the robotic missions use the wake-up call tradition, but at least for Spirit and Opportunity the music was played to the humans on the ground, rather than being uplinked to the rovers themselves. (It's actually kind of hard to find a definitive statement on this.)

        I would be really, really surprised if they would waste precious uplink bandwidth and buffer space sending a few megabytes of compressed music to a rover if there wasn't a really good engineering reason to do so. Needing to test the uplink system on a daily basis is a perfectly adequate reason, of course; the nature of a robotic mission is that it will downlink far more than it will uplink, and so it could well be important to keep pushing data over the uplink.

        I've found lots of sources talking about downlink (apparently they got 30MB to 250MB a day, depending), but nothing on the uplink...

        1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

          Re: David Given

          That would make much more sense!

          I must confess to also not being entirely sure myself.

    2. The Alpha Klutz
      Unhappy

      Re: Or is it just a pretty pointless exercise in uploading and downloading data?

      Everything is a pointless exercise in uploading and downloading data, when you think about it.

    3. Gav
      Flame

      Re: Does Curiosity have speakers?

      Nope. Just a pointless exercise in upload and downloading bits.

      I'm hoping they've compressed the **** out of it. Or they're just pretending to do it. Like it's all just coming out of the local NASA web cache. Really, who would know or care?

  10. Comments are attributed to your handle

    I really hope they didn't give Curiosity the ability to kill itself.

  11. Freshp2
    Alien

    To boldly go where no brother has gone before......... I'm guessing we will be beaming back tracks made by curiosity from a app that it downloaded from the app store while on route. Endless possibilities..... dj'ing from curi, curi on the ones and twos..... Cutting with lasor precision..... Curi tweeting...... Curi live from Mars broadcasting Via satellite to the VMAs, with a moon man..... I mean a Martian.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jeez, what next?

    Let's not forget that the worthless self-publicist also managed to blag himself a go in the Olympic Torch relay - 'cos of course a US muso perfectly encapsulated the spirit of that!!!

    will.i.am.sick.of.yo.ass.bugger.off

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Jeez, what next?

      What the author of the piece hasn't told you is that will.i.am has given several million dollars to science, technology and maths education in deprived areas of the US and UK. Whether you like his music (come on someone must) or not is a lot of money going to kids who need all the help they can.

      http://iamangelfoundation.org/

      Yes it's publicity for him, but if it means some kid might get a better education I'm all for it.

      1. Rob

        Re: Jeez, what next?

        He is quite big on technology, coincidently he was on Top Gear last night talking about a car he's designed and wants to start manufacturing in the 'ghetto' where he grew up to help the community. He's on a par with Bill Gates for philanthropy, nice to hear that he's trying to bolster interest in science and tech for kids specifically though.

        As for his music, not overly bothered. Although I don't see how he fits in time to write music with all the other stuff he does.

  13. b166er

    +1 for Tom Lehrer there.

    But perhaps it should be 'We will all go together when we go' 'to give you an idea of what an individualist he was he spelt it hen3ry. the 3 was silent, you see.'

    But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide....

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We prefer to refer to him as "b.ill" which nicely sums up his music and what we would like to happen to him.

  15. Senior Ugli
    IT Angle

    its taken a while but its quite shamefull now that tech companies have bought into the idea of a brand celeb represetative. Is this the only way to be seen as cool or communicate with the younger generation?

    I think I would be put off buying a polaroid if that manufactured twat gagagagagaghhh had anything to do with it

    Will.y.-ham dresses like a martian half the time anyway. Send him up there to test the atmosphere

  16. Magister
    Windows

    Zen

    If when the music is played, there is no-one there to hear it, does it matter if it sounds crap?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Calm down

    I think the article is overly harsh. Whether you like him or not firstly, you have to admit will.i.am does at least have some musical talent. Unlike most of the 'created' pop stars of today he can actually play instruments and is a talented producer and songwriter (even if his music is not your cup of tea).

    Secondly, as the article states, surely trying to get the 'yoof' interested or at least aware of missions like curiosity can be no bad thing. It's an education session for kids by NASA, would you prefer they don't bother or used a musician you consider more worthy from your era?

    1. Silverburn

      Re: Calm down

      Whether you like him or not firstly, you have to admit will.i.am does at least have some musical talent

      Where???

      Secondly, as the article states, surely trying to get the 'yoof' interested or at least aware of missions like curiosity can be no bad thing

      Agree. But to use this tosser??? What about someone more media friendly but still scientifically credible, such as one of the prof-u-celeb-tards, such as (Dr) Brian Cox?

      1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
        Alien

        Re: Calm down

        In other news the copyright mafiaa are looking for $405,000 for the 18 downloads the "song" from Curiosity

        Curiosity has also threatened to use it's laser to "put a cap in the ass" of any martins it meets.

        On a more serious note, its interesting to compare the use cleb-science nerds on both sides of the Atlantic,

        will.i.am - "director of creative innovation" at Intel, Kayne West and Lady Gaga HTC sporting headsets, Lady Gaga as Polaroid's creative director, justin bieber hemroid ointment (OK, I made that one up), its not really about science is it? Its about marketing, the pursuit of the one true god in merkin-land, Saint Greenback.

        Re: Dr Brian Cox, how about broadcasting a real musician and scientist, Dr Brian May, PhD in astrophysics, a few bars of "Tie your mother down" would do a lot for Mars-Earth relations.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Calm down

        where???

        he plays several instruments and is heavily involved in producing music. (as opposed to some dumb starlet who just mimes the lines given to her and dances around in a bikini on MTV). Even if you don't like his music or him I'm surprised you can't see he has musical talent.

        Secondly, he donates a lot of time and money to good causes so why is he such a tosser? By the way, I'm not particularly a fan but I would have thought there are a million and one people in the entertainment industry that qualify as tossers before him. I would stay if every celeb that existed was more like him the world would be a better place.

        And finally, as much as I like Brian Cox I'm sure he's practically unknown with kids in the US.

        Sounds like you're an old fart who can't accept that things, fashions and music changes and anyone who doesn't produce the sort of music you like is automatically a tosser.

  18. Matthew 3

    Voyager?

    Didn't Carl Sagan veto the inclusion of Bach's music on Voyager as it would be 'showing off'?

  19. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    The Beagle 2 Mars probe

    had an eponymous theme tune by Blur. Apparently this didn't go down well on Mars.

    1. bigphil9009
      Thumb Up

      Re: The Beagle 2 Mars probe

      Excellent mate! I love it :-)

  20. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    What is the sound on Mars....

    ...of one crap hand rapping?

    NASA'll be competing for webhosting, againist Big Daddy, etc. next. However, a 28-minute round trip won't be so attractive. Be cool, though.....

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    YAY! Lets get kidss into science !

    By doing something completley bollocks.

  22. Steve Evans

    Singer?

    The only reason Mr I.AM likes technology is that it has advanced so much that it can even pull his vocals onto a known musical pitch!

  23. Crisp

    So how much money is NASA making out of this.

    I personally would have charged William a small fortune.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If anything....

    .....is likely to trigger Curiosity into becoming self-aware, building it's own laser-wielding army of robots, and coming back to wipe out all life on earth, then this is it.

  25. This post has been deleted by its author

  26. k9gardner

    Come on, it's all right

    You ARE being too hard on will.i.am. Anyone who is a fan of Dr. Seuss should appreciate will.i.am's name, and that, I hope, includes all of us here. Anyway, he seems a good spirited guy, trying to reach out to young kids in need of some direction.

  27. Richard Scratcher
    Alien

    Mars ain't the kind of place to stage your gigs

    In fact it's cold as hell.

    And there's no one there to praise them, if you did.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mr I.Am = Self-Obsessed

    Mr I.Am can only be described as Self-Obsessed

    I seen him on Top Gear some time ago talking about when he was at Intel (Intel couldn't make a CPU without him) and the car he's designed and wants to start manufacturing, designs that where just over exaggerations of lines and shapes on car designs that are all ready in existence.

    Self-Obsessed !

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Mr I.Am = Self-Obsessed

      YES! How dare he come on a TV interview to talk about... himself...

  29. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance
    Trollface

    Pop music used to stand for something..

    Now it's worse than clown porn.

    Look it up. Had to myself the other day, been living under a mushroom - there are some sick fucks out there.

    So. Will.He.Is. is the spokesman not just for a generation, but a planet of the only sentient life that we know of in the universe. That has run it's course for nearly five thousand million years, where most stars do not even last a couple of hundred million years before they burn out (Astronomer types help me out here)....

    And what's worse, we have another five fucking thousand million years to go. If you ask me we are not going to get that far... Not with mr. Billy.He.Was at the helm...

    Hello, this is your Captain speaking. What do you mean you can't take me seriously in my sub-Adidas day-glo sportswear?

    This is a very bad trick or a very bad show. And I have nothing against day-glo wearing sub-adidas types myself.. some of my best friends wear it... but this is just beyond the pale, thin end of wedge... daily mail comments section...

    For FS!

    Hold that man down and give him a haircut. Transplant what's left of his brain while you are at it. Oh and transplant the whole of the person's brain who thought of it. Is Tony Fucking Blair still in charge or what?

    It's the kind of Cunt's trick he would pull. If you don't mind me saying so Mrs. Gardener from no. 56 Acacia St.

    Mrs Gardener from no. 56 Acacia St.: I think 'CUNT' is too kind a word for his kind. Makes Maggie Thatcher look like Mother Bleeding Theresa, Dirty Milk Snatcher she was an' all....

    Yes, on the whole - great idea!

    Half the British public are in uproar, but as usual, the other half haven't got a fucking clue what is going on.

  30. Joe User
    Alien

    Actual effect

    There will be a sudden run on ear plugs at the local Wal-martians....

    1. Bradley Hardleigh-Hadderchance

      Get 'em here, get 'em here..

      Get your Will.I.Insertions.

      (Evil marketing man in distance at desk has evil thought: Yes....yes...Why didn't I think of that .. eh eh...)

      Get your Will.I.Insertions ear, I mean 'ere. eh eh.. I mean ... I mean.. mwayhahhayyagraghhg...

      Ahem, YES dear I shall indeed be home in time for tea tonight. Fishfingers and chips - sounds lovely. Let me have another chardonnay or two with the boring chaps in marketings (sic) Don't forgtet the tomato sauce...

      Love you too..

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