First HD pictures from Mars

Will.i.am said he could not explain how amazing it was to have his song, Reach for the Stars, to be broadcast from another planet.

Speaking to students at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, he said the song will tell them to raise their expectations of what they can achieve for themselves, and surround themselves with people who believe in them.

During the event, Will.i.am's i.am angel Foundation and Discovery Education announced a $10m classroom education initiative that will reach 25 million students annually, including 'many from underserved communities'.

The Curiosity rover has beamed back a voice message from Mars in which Nasa's chief said a manned mission to the red planet could happen "in the not too distant future".

In the audio message, broadcast from the surface of the red planet by the Curiosity rover, Nasa administrator Charles Bolden said:

Nasa has released the first high-definition colour pictures of Mars sent back to Earth by the Curiosity rover.

The images come from the base of Mars' Mount Sharp where scientists will search for clues as to whether water once flowed on the red planet's surface.

NASA has tweeted this photograph of the team behind the Curiosity Mars mission visiting the set of the hit US TV comedy show The Big Bang Theory, which is based around four post-graduate scientists.

One of the NASA scientists giving an update on the Mars mission this evening said that everything on the Curiosity rover is working well and that the main challenge is "dampening excitement" so that the staff working on the mission get some rest.

NASA has released this image of the Curiosity rover's first track marks on the surface of Mars.

It follows a series of successful manoeuvres to test the rover's drive system.

Curiosity is now about 6 metres (20 feet) from where it touched down.

The Curiosity rover has tweeted a photograph of the spot where it landed on Mars, which NASA said today has been named 'Bradbury Landing' after the author Ray Bradbury.