The Chinese space agency is taking musical requests. The lunar program Chang'e (named for a mythical goddess who flew to the moon) will launch a lunar probe as early as next year and plans to broadcast Chinese music to the Earth from lunar orbit. You can vote online for one of 152 patriotic songs and pieces that represent China's many regional and ethnic groups. The list includes nu metal hit "The March of the Volunteers," Broadway show-stopper "The East is Red" and the classic slow jam "I Love You, China."

It's not the first time China's space program has launched an orbital jukebox. Its first satellite beamed down "The East is Red" from Earth orbit in 1970. And when it comes to kicking out the jams in the vacuum of space, the Middle Kingdom is not alone. NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 space probes carried gold records for the listening pleasure of extraterrestrial life (not realizing that all life in the universe would soon succumb to Apple marketing and buy an iPod).

It seems fitting that China, with its history of using loudspeakers to transmit the party line, would use music and space technology to symbolize its national strength and (by including regional and ethnic minority tunes) geographical unity. But I think that what future Chinese spacemen and women do with music won't be nearly so political... zero-G karaoke sounds like a blast.