Putting the 'Art' in Artemis

Your challenge is to create an artistic work to communicate, inform, or inspire others about humanity's road to Mars. Your art may be in any form, including (but not limited to): drawing, painting, sculpture, computer generated 2D or 3D, music, film, music video, written or spoken word, dance, and textile.

Reach Up

Summary

We used the most famous images and videos of our beautiful universe, as well as our musical abilities, to tell the story of the noble goal of space exploration through song, and also to show that with great work, effort, dedication, perseverance, and courage it is possible to achieve almost anything.

How We Addressed This Challenge

We wrote a song called "Reach Up"

Here's the link to the lyrics (Google Drive): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6Sn-0_aUbC8nBdgnPwp0XwrsQwU-KlY/view?usp=sharing


Reach Up

The world ascends,

With such elegance and grace,

Above these silvery lands,

In the infinite blackness of space.


If we wish below our feet,

Silver or rust,

If that is what for, our heart beats,

Then this is what we must:


Reach up for the stars!

May inspiration ignite your flame.

In the sands of Mars,

Write your name.


We persevere,

Put in our blood, sweat and tears,

So that one day we could hear,

The crowd’s roaring cheers.


And when we take flight,

When we reach those heights,

The future shines so clear and bright.

Still we look in awe at those starry nights.


So reach up for the stars,

Your destiny’s there to claim.

In the sands of Mars,

Write your name.


Explanation:


Title:

"Reach for the stars." - Christa McAuliffe, NASA Astronaut and teacher

The title for our song is also there to pay tribute to the fallen astronauts of Space Shuttle Challenger and Space Shuttle Columbia.


Strophe 1:

We were inspired by the photograph of Earth rising above the lunar horizon, taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts in July of 1969. The contrast of Earth against the blackness of space and the silvery moon dust is truly a sight to behold. It puts into perspective just how small and fragile our world truly is.


Strophe 2:

The word "silver" here represents the Moon's surface and "rust" the martian surface.

Ever since we first stepped on the lunar surface, we dreamt of going further; to Mars and beyond. That dream of ours is set to become a reality in a couple of years, with the renewed interest in space exploration, the Artemis program and the commercial crew program.



Strophe 3 (Chorus):

So our message to humanity (and every individual human) is to reach up for the stars, for the unknown and unexplored, to do what nobody has done before. Just like rocket engines in the moment just before liftoff, may your inspiration and ambition ignite your potential. When you succeed, your (and humanity's) name will be written down in history, in the stars, in the martian dust.



Strophe 4:

But to get there, to hear the crowds cheer after a successful mission (or after achieving any other goal), we must put in our maximum, our full potential, our "blood, sweat and tears" as Elon Musk would say. This song is there to give hope of a better future, amidst these difficult times. We must persevere, and Mars 2020 rover's name, Perseverance also amplifies that message.



Strophe 5:

Still, even when we are among the stars, we wonder and look in awe at the universe. We try to understand our place in it, but we can't help but admire it and it's beauty.



Strophe 6 (Chorus):

People must never forget to dream, because their success, whatever it may be - pushes humanity forward, ultimately to the final frontier, space. Because space is for everyone - not just for astronauts and scientists.



What do we hope to achieve:

We want to inspire, using music, because we believe that it is universal, understandable to almost everyone and maybe the best art form to convey emotions.

We hope to bring space closer to people's minds and hearts, to inform of NASA's Artemis program and inform about the Moon to Mars project. To excite people about the future, to give hope in the middle of these dark times.


How does our creation work:

It works using a secret substance, little understood by science: love and our emotions.



Link to our music video (YouTube):

https://youtu.be/0X0XVMrvy-8















How We Developed This Project


Development:

Inspiration:

We were inspired by Frank Sinatra's 1964 version of "Fly me to the Moon" , originally written by Bart Howard in 1954. Frank Sinatra's version was strongly associated with the Apollo program and NASA's missions to the Moon. It was played on a portable cassette during the Apollo 10 mission, and again during Apollo 11, before the first Moon landing.

Commander Chris Hadfield covered David Bowie's "Space Oddity" while he was on a mission on the ISS in 2013. We want "Reach up" to have the same "wow" effect.


Melody:

"Reach Up" is supposed to be an uplifting, cheerful and hopeful song, so we chose A-flat major for it's main key. E - flat major and D - flat major in some parts give it a heroic, bold and majestic sound. We added g - sharp minor to give it that feeling of vastness, mystery, and coldness of space.


Lyrics:

The lyrics tell a story of humanity. What does it take to explore space? What does it take to achieve your dreams and goals? Well, we tried to answer those questions.



Achievements:

Our greatest achievement as a team was succeeding in writing and composing an original song that we, and hopefully others, can relate to.


Problems we faced:

Apart from a simple "creative block", the biggest challenges we faced was coming up with a catchy and memorable melody, as well as not being able to find a suitable singer :(

(Trust us, we tried to sing it ourselves, but it didn't sound great)


What we used:

Editing - Wondershare Filmora 9





How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

We collected data, images and videos from online galleries of various space agencies, mostly from NASA's image and video gallery. We pieced those visuals and our audio and lyrics together in a 2 minute music video that we posted on our YouTube channel.

It uses images, videos, data and information we collected from online space agency libraries to tell the story of humanity's greatest endeavour - space exploration.



Project Demo

Demo of our song (YouTube):

https://youtu.be/lcXj_WXDv3g

Tags
#space #music #song #art #artemis #mars #moon #perseverance #nasa #stars #inspiration #inspire #create #apollo #apollo11 #opportunity
Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Judging process.