New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer JASON ACHILLES has taken his combined passion for music and astronomy to new heights as his work as a research consultant for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has now resulted in a historical first-ever Martian audio recording. ACHILLES was enlisted by NASA in the summer of 2017 to assemble a team of audio research experts to advise on microphone technology to be implemented on the surface of Mars for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover mission after pitching
David Gruel (Assembly, Test and Launch Operations Manager for Mars Perseverance at JPL) his concepts for informing a working audio selection, largely based on his work as an audio engineer for the past decade. His team worked towards final selection of audio flight hardware on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover as part of an array of seven cameras known as the EDLCAM system ("entry, descent, and landing") and successfully obtained sounds from Jezero Crater including a Martian breeze. Listen HERE.
ACHILLES shared the in-depth story of his background in space, how he independently worked to forward the idea of a 'space microphone', and what it was like to seize an incredible opportunity to develop this system alongside NASA via WIRED. Read the full interview here: https://www.wired.com/story/musician-who-designed-microphone-mars/
A group of people standing in a room Description automatically generated with medium confidence(L-R) Jason Achilles,
David Gruel (Mars Perseverance ATLO manager), Caesar Garcia [EDLCAM Microphone Evaluation Team]
Alongside his work with space audio technology, ACHILLES runs his boutique analog recording studio, Organic Audio Recorders, based in downtown LA, and is currently working with
Dizzy Reed (Guns N' Roses) on his forthcoming solo album. ACHILLES -who studied classical piano and has a B.A. in
Music from UC Berkeley—is a multi-instrumentalist that simultaneously performs guitar, bass and keys using intricate looping techniques. Backed by drummer Forrest Mitchell, the duo released their debut full-length album COMEDOWN in 2016, which was praised by No Depression for its "slick guitar tones, enchanting as they intertwine through each and every song on the record."
ACHILLES will release a new EP later this spring which was launched with the release of the single "RTL (Ready To Launch)" in December. The second single, "Eurotrash," will debut this Friday, February 26 across all streaming platforms. Pre-save/order it here: smarturl.it/eurotrash.
