Music in space

Music in space is Music in Outer space, related typically to the playing of sounds in Human spaceflight, but also sometimes related to un-manned missions. Music in space has been a focal point of public relation events of various spaceflight program missions. An example of a NASA incorporating music in space when Astronaut Chris Hadfield filmed himself playing David Bowie's song Space Oddity on the International Space Station in 2013, and then uploaded it to the Internet Website YouTube.

An example of the Soviet's execution of Music in space is when they allowed Aleksandr Laveikin and Yuri Romanenko to take guitar to the Space Station Mir in 1987.

In 2003 the British space organization's Beagle 2 probe was scheduled to play a song from the UK music band Blur, upon touchdown on the planet Mars. It was not known what happened to Beagle for 11 years after its landing, and was consierded a lost, but when it was found 2015 intact it raised the possibility that it had successfully played the song on Christmas day in 2003 when it landed, but failed to transmit back to Earth.

Apollo XVII (1972)

A few bars of The Fountain in the Park were sung on the Moon by NASA Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission. Schmitt started by singing "I was strolling on the Moon one day..." when Cernan joined in. Cernan kept with the original "merry month of May", however, while Schmitt sang "December", which was the actual date at the time. After a brief debate, Schmitt resumed, singing "When much to my surprise, a pair of bonny eyes..." until he could no longer remember the lyrics and began vocalizing the notes instead. Moments later, Capsule Communicator Robert A. Parker cut in from Houston, saying "sorry about that, guys, but today may be December."

Music on Voyager Golden Record

Main article: Contents of the Voyager Golden Record

The Voyager program probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 which by 2016 were still the farthest human made object from Earth (also Voyager 1 is reported to have reached interstellar space) where the galactic plasma is present. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched by NASA with a message aboard — a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate to extraterrestrials a story of the world of humans on Earth.

This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.

— President Jimmy Carter

Audio sections contain the spoken greetings in the remaining four languages, including Esperanto and !Kung, and also whale sounds were provided by Roger Payne. The next audio section is devoted to the "sounds of Earth" that include:

• "Music of the Spheres" – Johannes Kepler's "Harmonices Mundi" realized by Laurie Spiegel
• Volcanoes, Earthquake, Thunder
• Mud Pots
• Wind, Rain, Surf
• Crickets, Frogs
• Birds, Hyena, Elephant, Whale
• Chimpanzee
• Wind
• Wild Dog
• Footsteps, Heartbeat, Laughter
• The First Tools

• Tame Dog
• Herding Sheep, Blacksmith, Sawing
• Tractor, Riveter
• Morse Code, Ships (precisely, a ship's horn)
• Horse and Cart
• Train
• Tractor, Bus, Auto
• F-111 Flyby, Saturn V Lift-off
• Kiss, Mother and Child
• Life Signs, Pulsar

Included within the Sounds of Earth audio portion of the Golden Record is a track containing the inspirational message per aspera ad astra in Morse Code. Translated from Latin, it means, through hardships to the stars.

Curiosity rover and Reach for the Stars

A song written, produced and recorded by American recording artist will.i.am in commemoration of the landing of the Curiosity rover on the planet Mars called "Reach for the Stars", alternately subtitled "Mars Edition" and "NASA Edition", was first released on August 28, 2012. This song "Reach for the Stars (Mars Edition)" became the first song in history to be broadcast from another planet, completing a journey of more than 300 million miles between Mars and Earth.

See also

• Space-themed music (is Music related to outer space)
• Space music (a genre of Music type)