- "Reaching for the Stars" by will.i.am is beamed from the Red Planet
- The song, which features a 40-piece orchestra, celebrates Mars' landing
- It also aims to encourage youth to study science
(CNN) -- Rapper will.i.am can boast of an accomplishment that is out of this world: His latest single premiered from Mars, making it the first song to debut on another planet.
The Black Eyed Peas singer wrote the song, "Reaching for the Stars," to mark the successful landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on the Red Planet this month.
A far cry from his regular hip-hop tunes, it features a 40-piece orchestra set to a futuristic beat.
The song is set to transcend time and cultures, he said.
An image released Monday, August 27, was taken with Curiosity rover's 100-millimeter mast camera, NASA says. The image shows Mount Sharp on the Martian surface. NASA says the rover will go to this area. Curiosity arrived on Mars early on August 6 and began beaming back images from the surface. See all the images here as they are released. Check out images from previous Mars missions. 
The Mars rover Curiosity moved about 15 feet forward and then reversed about 8 feet during its first test drive on Wednesday, August 22. The rover's tracks can be seen in the right portion of this panorama taken by the rover's navigation camera. 
NASA tested the steering on its Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 21. Drivers wiggled the wheels in place at the landing site on Mars. 
Curiosity moved its robot arm on Monday, August 20, for the first time since it landed on Mars. "It worked just as we planned," said JPL engineer Louise Jandura in a NASA press release. This picture shows the 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm holding a camera, a drill, a spectrometer, a scoop and other tools. The arm will undergo weeks of tests before it starts digging. 
With the addition of four high-resolution Navigation Camera, or Navcam, images, taken on August 18, Curiosity's 360-degree landing-site panorama now includes the highest point on Mount Sharp visible from the rover. Mount Sharp's peak is obscured from the rover's landing site by this highest visible point. 
This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The composite incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock. 
An updated self-portrait of the Mars rover Curiosity, showing more of the rover's deck. This image is a mosiac compiled from images taken from the navigation camera. The wall of Gale Crater, the rover's landing site, can be seen at the top of the image. 
This image shows what will be the rover's first target with it's chemistry and camera (ChemCam) instrument. The ChemCam will fire a laser at the rock, indicated by the black circle. The laser will cause the rock to emit plasma, a glowing, ionized gas. The rover will then analyze the plasma to determine the chemical composition of the rock. 
This is a close-up of the rock that will be the ChemCam's first target. 
This image, cropped from a larger panorama, shows an area, near the rover's rear left wheel, where the surface material was blown away by the descent-stage rockets. 
This image, with a portion of the rover in the corner, shows the wall of Gale Crater running across the horizon at the top of the image. 
This image, taken from the rover's mast camera, looks south of the landing site toward Mount Sharp. 
This partial mosaic from the Curiosity rover shows Mars' environment around the rover's landing site on Gale Crater. NASA says the pictured landscape resembles portions of the U.S. Southwest. The high-resolution mosaic includes 130 images, but not all the images have been returned by the rover to Earth. The blackened areas of the mosaic are the parts that haven't been transmitted yet. See more on this panaroma on NASA's site. 
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
In this portion of the larger mosaic from the previous frame, the crater wall can be seen north of the landing site, or behind the rover. NASA says water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys, which enter Gale Crater from the outside here. 
Two blast marks from the descent stage's rockets can be seen in the center of this image. Also seen is Curiosity's left side. This picture is a mosaic of images taken by the rover's navigation cameras. 
A color image from NASA's Curiosity rover shows the pebble-covered surface of Mars. This panorama mosaic was made of 130 images of 144 by 144 pixels each. Selected full frames from this panorama, which are 1,200 by 1,200 pixels each, are expected to be transmitted to Earth later. 
A panoramic photograph shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at its landing site inside Gale Crater. The rim of Gale Crater can be seen to the left, and the base of Mount Sharp is to the center-right. 
A partial view of a 360-degree color panorama of the Curiosity rover's landing site on Gale Crater. The panorama comes from low-resolution versions of images taken Thursday, August 9, with a 34-millimeter mast camera. Cameras mounted on Curiosity's remote sensing mast have beamed back fresh images of the site. 
NASA's Curiosity rover took this self-portrait using a camera on its newly deployed mast. 
A close-up view of an area at the NASA Curiosity landing site where the soil was blown away by the thrusters during the rover's descent on August 6. The excavation of the soil reveals probable bedrock outcrop, which shows the shallow depth of the soil in this area. 
This color full-resolution image showing the heat shield of NASA's Curiosity rover was obtained during descent to the surface of Mars on Monday, August 13. The image was obtained by the Mars Descent Imager instrument known as MARDI and shows the 15-foot diameter heat shield when it was about 50 feet from the spacecraft. 
This first image taken by the Navigation cameras on Curiosity shows the rover's shadow on the surface of Mars. 
The color image captured by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Tuesday, August 7, has been rendered about 10% transparent so that scientists can see how it matches the simulated terrain in the background. 
This image comparison shows a view through a Hazard-Avoidance camera on NASA's Curiosity rover before and after the clear dust cover was removed. Both images were taken by a camera at the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, the mission's ultimate destination, looms ahead. 
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA's Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. 
This image is a 3-D view in front of NASA's Curiosity rover. The anaglyph was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 3.4 miles high, is visible rising above the terrain, though in one "eye" a box on the rover holding the drill bits obscures the view. 
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Monday afternoon on the first day after landing. 
This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on Monday afternoon, the first day after landing. 
This is one of the first pictures taken by Curiosity after it landed. It shows the rover's shadow on the Martian soil. 
Another of the first images taken by the rover. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has popped open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel. 
This image shows Curiosity's main science target, Mount Sharp. The rover's shadow can be seen in the foreground. The dark bands in the distances are dunes. 
Another of the first images beamed back from NASA's Curiosity rover on August 6 is the shadow cast by the rover on the surface of Mars. 
NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover, shown in this artist's rendering, touched down on the planet on August 6. 
Photos: Mars rover Curiosity 
Hear NASA's message to Mars "Mars has always fascinated us, and the things Curiosity tells us about it will help us learn about whether or not life was possible there," said Charles Bolden, the NASA administrator. "And what future human explorers can expect, will.i.am has provided the first song on our playlist of Mars exploration."
The song was unveiled during a news conference Tuesday at a NASA laboratory in Pasadena, California. The playback included Martian photos of eroded knobs, gulches on a mountainside and exposed geological layering.
Flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, aka "Mohawk Guy," gave a thumbs up and hit the play button, sending his teammates beaming, swaying and clapping.
"Why do they say the sky is the limit," will.i.am sings, "when I've seen the footprints on the Moon."
The tune -- which aims to encourage youth to study science -- completed a trip of more than 300 million miles from Earth to Mars and back, according to NASA.
"And I know that Mars might be far, but baby it ain't really that far," will.i.am goes on. "Let's reach for the stars."
In addition to the singer, students also attended the event in Pasadena, where they asked questions about the Curiosity mission and the song's interplanetary transmission.
"This is about inspiring young people to lead a life without limits placed on their potential and to pursue collaboration between humanity and technology," will.i.am said.
While will.i.am has the first song, NASA also accomplished another feat this week. Bolden's became the first human voice broadcast from another planet.
The space agency's accomplishments are the latest in a series of advances aimed at making science more cool.
NASA beamed The Beatles' "Across the Universe" into space on February 4, 2008.
The song marked the anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song and the 50th year of NASA's founding.
An excited Paul McCartney welcomed the beaming of the song written by fellow Beatle John Lennon.
"Amazing! Well done, NASA!" McCartney said in a message to the space agency at the time. "Send my love to the aliens."
Despite the complexity of landing a 2,000-pound vehicle on another planet, Curiosity had a perfect landing on August 6, and most of the instruments scientists have tested appear to function.
Curiosity is sending back more data from the surface of Mars than the combined results of all of NASA's previous rovers, the space agency said.
Last week, it completed its first drive on Mars, setting the stage for it to venture farther afield.
There's only been one glitch so far: a wind sensor on the rover's weather station was damaged and the reason might always remain mysterious, scientists say.
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