Rovers, Rockets, and Rock N' Roll

Experience an immersive journey where music and science converge, as a lifelong artist shares captivating stories and groundbreaking sounds from space, transforming complex concepts into an engaging exploration for audiences of all ages.

Produced by

Jason Achilles Mezilis, Mike Murray

Directed by

Jason Achilles Mezilis

Project Description

"Rovers, Rockets, and Rock ‘n Roll" highlights the intersection of exploration, curiosity and the arts. The live-hosted program is specifically designed for dome theaters, with its world debut held at the Delta College Planetarium on February 21, 2025. RR&RnR is hosted, written, and produced by Jason Achilles with co-producer & show designer Mike Murray (Delta College Planetarium). In this uniquely multi-dimensional and inspirational show for all-ages, Achilles shares personal experiences with NASA, recordings from the Martian surface, high resolution audio-video of rocket launches, and his own original musical live-performance soundscapes set to immersive dome video and animation.

Jason Achilles is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and aerospace collaborator whose work uniquely bridges music, science, and education. Best known for his role in helping inform NASA on design and operations of a microphone that recently captured the first-ever recorded sounds from the surface of Mars, Achilles has transformed this historic scientific achievement into an accessible, youth-centered educational experience. Through immersive lecture and performance in the planetarium format, he introduces young audiences to complex scientific concepts—particularly space science—by meeting them where they already feel comfortable: music.

At the heart of Achilles’ work is the belief that science is not reserved for a narrow group of “naturally gifted” students, but is accessible to anyone whose curiosity is sparked in the right way . Many young people find science intimidating or abstract, while nearly all have an intuitive and emotional relationship with music. Achilles leverages this universal familiarity to lower barriers to scientific engagement, using sound as both a literal and metaphorical entry point into exploration, physics, engineering, and space science.

(website in progress, please visit press links for further information)

About the Director

Jason Achilles’ journey itself forms a core part of his educational message. A lifelong musician and producer, he did not follow a traditional scientific career path. Instead, his deep personal fascination with space combined with his technical expertise in sound and audio engineering led him to collaborate initially with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and later to develop NASA-funded payload concepts for lunar and Mars exploration, having received nearly $1M in supportive exploratory grants.

A defining characteristic of Achilles’ work is his use of immersive environments to cultivate wonder. His collaborations extend beyond planetariums to large-scale public art and science installations, including participation in the My Mars 2025 installation at Domain NORTHSIDE in Austin. There, a towering, illuminated replica of Mars—created using real NASA imagery—was paired with Achilles’ live music and science storytelling, creating an experience that was simultaneously educational, artistic, and emotionally resonant for an enthusiastic audiences of all ages.

Achilles enjoys collaboration with major scientific and cultural institutions including California Academy of Sciences, Delta College Foundation, Orange Coast College, and Skywalker Sound; as well as space entities Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, and the European Space Agency (ESA).