Jason Achilles is an LA-based musician and producer.
Jacon Achilles delivers a unique, live planetarium experience that combines both of those things.
Jason is also a family friend. Like, the same kids call us both “uncle.”
Several years ago Jason was visiting me at Morrison Planetarium, he had a moment of inspiration. He wanted to combine his love of space and music into a planetarium performance.
A little while later he gave me a call.
“Hey man,” he started out, “so I’ve been working with these guys at JPL on… you know the Mars rover?”
Though a casual conversation with his own friends at JPL, Jason helped outfit the Perseverance rover with the microphone that delivered the first sounds ever recorded on a planet other than Earth to our ears .
Many planetariums included that first audio clip from Mars in public presentations, but Jason aspired to do even more with it. He wanted to craft a complete planetarium experience that combined the science and technology behind this mission (and other work he was now doing to bring the experiences of rocket launches and space missions to the public) with his passion for music
A few months after our first phone call, the COVID-19 Pandemic struck, and Jason’s ambitions were derailed. He was able to present some of his story as a streaming program for the California Academy of Science’s online nightSchool programs during the summer of 2020. A year or so later he returned for another live presentation at the Academy’s Science Today flat screen venue, where he also gave a guitar performance.
Jason and I then took some nights to demo what a planetarium presentation and performance could look like, bringing his audio, immersive video elements, and instruments into the planetarium theater for a live presentation.
Unfortunately, shortly after that I had a mountain biking accident and needed to take some months for recovery (and yes, I have since had to give up the thrills of mountain biking).
I connected Jason with some friends and colleagues at other planetariums and even rendered him some additional dome video footage of Mars, but unfortunately, something always seemed to go wrong when it came time to making the program happen in a planetarium.
But of course, we stayed in touch as Jason pursued the blend of music and astronomy, including performing at the Starmus Festival in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain.
Photo by Hannah May
When I was starting Tau Immersive, Jason was one of my first phone calls–eager to finally commit my time and resources to making his dream come together. And I was happy to learn, it was already happening! Jason had connected with Mike Murray and the team at the Delta College Planetarium in Bay City, Michigan and was in the process of putting together his performance.
Jason gave the first performances of his show in February of 2025 and has already returned to Delta College for multiple encores and has brought the show to other planetariums in the region.
The unique experience blends Jason’s psychedelic rock influenced planetarium performances with live astronomy and music show style visuals (and we’ve been working to prepare additional new sequences that he’s been dreaming up) with his story working on Perseverance and other space missions.
Photo by Stephanie Pick
I have always been a huge fan of live performance and presentation, and Jason intertwines both into a compelling experience that can only happen in the immersive environment of a planetarium.
Personally, I also find Jason’s story inspiring. He gets to share how pursuing his talent and passion for music still brought him back to his life-long love for space and science. As someone who also found a non-traditional path to working in space science, I think it’s an incredible powerful message to deliver to the public, and especially to children.
Rovers, Rockets and Rock ‘n Roll is fun, educational, and inspirational. You can bring it to your planetarium too, where it might just inspire the next generation of space innovators.
Innovators like Jason himself, who ever since he was a kid, was always dreaming of space.
Jason Achilles will be performing a shortened version of Rovers, Rockets, and Rock ‘n Roll at the GLPA-WAC Planetarium Conference in Minneapolis, MN on Wednesday, October 8, 2025. He is available to book to bring this exciting live performance to your planetarium.
