The public will have the opportunity to take part in the Mars New Year Festival like never before with an experience across the stars, spoken in music and light.

Making its debut on Saturday, June 7, the Martian Melody Orchestra will entertain festival attendees with a show centered around space and exploration. The performance will run from 6 to 7 p.m.

According to Jeff Beckstead, president and mentor of Mars Robotics Association, the orchestra is a collaborative performance that will fuse music, robotics and visuals inspired by space exploration.

“We came up with the idea of an orchestra to play some space music during this year’s festival. We have a lot of wonderful musical organizations in the area and a lot of talented students who also play musical instruments,” Beckstead said.

During the performance, attendees can look forward to hearing music from “Star Wars,” “The Mandalorian” and “Danger Zone,” from “Top Gun.”

“There’s also something very special about this performance. World-renowned composer John M. Kennedy will be composing an original piece specifically for this orchestra,” Beckstead said.

Kennedy, a composer and bassist who lives in Los Angeles, has taught in the California State University system for nearly 30 years.

“I had an idea of ways of combining what I do as a composer and exploring the science and technology side of things,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy reached out to Caroline Coward, an accomplished cellist and head librarian at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

“(Kennedy) reached out to me because he was interested in composing a piece of music centered around space and science, and he wanted to know if it was something JPL was interested in, or if I knew of anyone else,” Coward said.

This is when things clicked into place for Coward, the people Kennedy was looking to connect with were Beckstead and Gregg Hartung, the mayor of Mars.

“I said, John, why don’t you incorporate robotics into the piece, told him about the folks in Mars, Pennsylvania, and put him in contact with them,” Coward said.

Coward herself had become attached to work in Mars through Beckstead, Hartung and former NASA head scientist Jim Green.

“Several years ago I was asked if I was interested in developing an idea to help with the foundation of (what would be) the Science Discovery Center and Library of the Future, specifically on the library side of the project, so based on the connections I made, I knew John needed to speak with them,” Coward said.

Even after his initial conversations with Coward, Beckstead and Hartung, Kennedy still didn’t fully understand what the festival in Mars was.

“I wasn’t clear on what Mars New Year was, but once I got there and we all hit it off as a team, we put together this idea that the robots could interact as instruments in the orchestra, each creating their own sound,” Kennedy said.

According to Beckstead, Kennedy visited the Mars Robotics students and began working with them on how these robotic instruments could be used.

“The students are not only building and programming the robots, but they’re also developing electromagnetic instruments that will be controlled by the robots,” Beckstead said.

Kennedy met with students of Mars Robotics on weekly video calls, and over the course of a few months, he wrote his composition in accordance with the technological background accompanying the music.

“The working title for this piece is Minerva, and it celebrates boundless imagination when art and science meet. Throughout the work, conventional and robotic musical instruments combine to tell the story of innovation and discovery set to images of the Martian landscape, he said.”

Students like Audrey Anderson, who not only plays the violin but also has been engineering robots within the organization for the past five years, will be featured.

“Through Mars Robotics, I’ve done a lot of engineering, working on robots in competition and performing outreach for organization events like with the concert,” Audrey said.

She joined the robotics organization because of her brother’s previous involvement. She will be playing the violin during the Saturday concert.

In addition to performing with other musicians and competing with the robotics students, Audrey said she also will be raising money at the festival through the sale of Red Planet Soda, Mars Robotics’ own branded soda. It is produced through a bottling company in Ohio that does private labeling.

“We have flavors such as Black Hole Cherry, Opportunity Orbital Orange, Cosmic Curiosity Cream Soda and many more,” she said.

It’s working with the students that really inspired Kennedy, who believes that such a strong collaboration is what has brought the group success in planning this event.

With all this talk of robots, what about fears of robots one day taking over the orchestra pit? Not so fast, according to Kennedy.

“I consider the robots just another layer of instrumentation, not a replacement for anything,” Kennedy said.

For the students, Beckstead and Kennedy, this collaboration has been a two-way street of learning. While the students have the opportunity to work with a renowned composer, Kennedy, too, has learned from them.

“What I’ve learned from them, it’s a two-way street. I’ve learned a lot about how robotics work and the idea that I need to think differently about timing. Timing is something musicians see in a very specific way, whereas engineers think of it more as a measurement,” Kennedy said.

As for Coward, she’s thrilled to see this all come together and is excited to see the students perform the piece with Kennedy.

“How often do students get to work with a composer on an original piece, not to mention a piece in which their robots are part of the performance,” Coward said.