Will.i.am To Give Curiosity A Mars Premiere Of Latest Track

Rapper will.i.am is no stranger to musical stunts, but premiering his latest track on Mars courtesy of the Curiosity rover is perhaps the oddest so far. The outlandish artist will reveal his newest record, "Reach for the Stars," on Tuesday, August 28, NASA has confirmed, as part of an educational event discussing interplanetary transmissions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The track, NASA says, describes will.i.am's "passion for science, technology and space exploration" and is part of the rapper's i.am.angel Foundation to deliver digital resources to education environments. It's not clear whether the song is currently being stored in Curiosity's scant 2GB of internal flash memory, though if that's the case then we don't imagine the quality will be all that great.

While the music might not be to everybody's tastes, the i.am.angel Foundation's plans to invest in a "science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics initiative" of which Curiosity will be one part can't be bad news for science education in general. Of course the big question is, since will.i.am has already described ultrabooks as the new ghettoblaster, does that make Curiosity the new iPod?

NASA will livestream the will.i.am and JPL education event from 1pm PDT on Tuesday this week. You'll be able to tune in at NASA TV.