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| Tim Peake was the first British astronaut to set foot on the International Space Station(Image: Getty Images) |
Techno in the gym, disco in the club, and pop on long drives are all great choices, but which music is best for space? On Nasa's most recent trip around the moon, the crew of Artemis II have been waking up to songs like Tokyo Drifting by Glass Animals and Denzel Curry and Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club. Although you might not think that astronauts would be jamming out to these songs, they have been. US rapper Curry tells BBC Newsbeat of his excitement and shock that his song reached new heights this week.
He says if he was to ever meet the astronauts he would want to "give all of them a hug for even thinking about me" for their space playlist.
Curry, who says he's always had an interest in space-related films, hopes the song gets a "second life now" and his next ambition is to be the first rapper to perform in space.
READ MORE: Spacecraft aims to prevent Moon flyby blackouts
Additionally, there is more to the connection between music and space than you might think. While the final checks were being completed before now-retired British astronaut Tim Peake's trip to the International Space Station in 2015, he picked three songs.
Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, Beautiful Day by U2 and A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay were on his upbeat playlist. He tells Newsbeat, "I wanted to have a bit of fun before launch," and he also says that having music in space is "really important."
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| Antonia Jaramillo says it has been a "busy and exciting" time at mission control(Image: NASA) |
Peake asserts, "I think it gives you a connection back to Earth." "It reminds you of times in your life when you've heard that music. Maybe it reminds you of friends and family."
The experience of hearing human music being played in space is "quite surreal", he says.
"When you look back, you only see the planet as a whole. That's home," he continues. "In the blackness of space, this lovely, beautiful, sort of blue, green, and white marble. "So in order to reconnect with your loved ones, having that music in your capsule is very important."
That connection through a "familiar song" is key, according to Antonia Jaramillo, who works for Nasa.
"They are by themselves. From Houston's mission control, Jaramillo tells Newsbeat that "they are going around the moon." "We all have our morning wake up routine.
"You have a soundtrack to get you in the zone. It's a very similar thing we're doing for our crew."
So, how exactly does the music get to astronauts in space? The process is fairly simple, she says.
"The flight controllers at mission control, a member of our team, are able to broadcast those songs to the crew after they are downloaded. "Just like how we do all the other communications with our crews in space."
According to Jaramillo, the crew and their loved ones chose the specific playlist for the Artemis II mission. "It's a mix of some of my personal favorites and some particular tracks that are significant to this mission. "Listening to it has been a pleasure."
Dr Eleanor Armstrong, who researches space at the University of Leicester, tells Newsbeat that playing songs in the morning in space "dates way back to the Gemini era".
A US space program that Nasa ran in the 1960s goes by the name Gemini.
Armstrong explains that organizations like the US Navy have used music to start their days for a long time. The nine-song playlist for Nasa's Artemis II has been made available on Spotify, and includes other artists such as John Legend, Queen and David Bowie.
Astronauts have also been known to do their own thing in the past.
Astronauts Thomas Stafford and Wally Schirra surprised mission control on December 16th, 1965, to mark the first successful space rendezvous. During the Gemini 6A mission, the pair smuggled a harmonica and a set of small bells. To the surprise of the team listening back at base, Stafford and Schirra performed Jingle Bells.
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, displays the first instruments played in space.
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| The crew of Artemis II, from left to right; Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch(Image: Getty Images) |
Even in more recent times, astronauts continue to use music to represent various moments in space. "There's also a long history of using songs on uncrewed missions," according to Armstrong. She tells Newsbeat that the unmanned Voyager mission, which went into deep space in 1977 and went beyond the edge of the solar system, had a disc with many songs and sounds "representing the diversity of human experience." The 33-year-old adds that the Tesla Roadster put into space by SpaceX is programmed to play David Bowie's Space Oddity "on loop".
Armstrong says US astronaut Christina Koch, who is part of the Artemis II crew, is very interested in "music in space".
"Find the cassette tape that they played on the Apollo 11 mission," she claims of the 47-year-old. Koch then played it while she was on the International Space Station during the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. During her time on the ISS in 2019 to 2020, "she learned to play a song for her husband on the keyboard for their wedding anniversary".
Koch has also been known to create playlists with her husband.
The idea is that each playlist serves as the soundtrack to a portion of her journey that they both listen to, allowing them to feel connected despite their distance.
Koch said earlier this week that the wake-up songs are "absolute perfection," but she wasn't happy that Pink Pony Club was cut off "before the chorus" when she spoke to Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney. "I really was just singing it all day after that," she said.
Commander Reid Wiseman said Tokyo Drifting reminded him of his family.
"A song that my daughters and I listen to when we go on our annual vacation to Florida, so that meant the most to me," he added.
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie was suggested by Jeremy Hansen's family, though he said his "second favourite song" will come on landing day.
In response to the fact that she had substituted Good Morning by Mandisa for one of his songs, Victor Glover gave his wife a "shout out" for her choice. He acknowledged, "It was actually really pleasant to wake up to."
The complete wake-up playlist for Artemis II:
Sleepyhead, a sickly young man Green Light - John Legend featuring André 3000
Freddy Jones Band's "In a Daydream" Chappell Roan of Pink Pony Club Working Class Heroes - CeeLo Green
TobyMac and Mandisa's "Good Morning" Denzel Curry and the Glass Animals in Tokyo Drifting Under Pressure - Queen and David Bowie
Charley Crockett - The Lonesome Drifter
Source: BBC
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