NASA Curiosity rover: Will.i.am track 'Reach for the Stars' to be the first song ever played on Mars

(AFP PHOTO/JOSEP LAGO)

Not content with his current ubiquity on planet earth, Will.i.am is now set to colonise Mars. The latest song from the Black Eyed Peas singer will be the first to be broadcast from another planet.

The talent show coach announced on his Twitter feed that his new song, “Reach for the Stars” will be played by NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently stationed on the Mars surface after landing on the planet earlier this month.

With the help of NASA, the four minutes and 24 second song will be beamed 166 million miles back to earth from the $2.5 billion rover, at 7pm BST tonight. The event will also be streamed by the NASA website.

The song is "a new composition about the singer's passion for science, technology and space exploration", written when Curiosity began its journey to Mars.

The lyrics to the song include: "Why do they say the sky is the limit, When I've seen them footprints on the moon. I know that Mars might be far but baby it ain't really that far."

"My song is finally going to be beamed back to earth,” tweeted the musician. He added that he felt “blessed” to have recorded the “first song ever to be sent from another planet.”

In 2003, Blur recorded a musical call-sign for the Beagle 2 lander which was supposed to search for signs of life on Mars. However all contact with the vehicle was lost after it separated from its mother ship.

David Bowie may feel he has the greatest claim to be the first musician broadcast from the “red planet”. Bowie recorded his paean to space travel, Life On Mars?, in 1971.