Want your name to reach another planet? You can by submitting your name with NASA. Enthusiasts can fill up a simple form and their names would be added to a silicon microchip headed to Mars aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.
Submissions will be accepted until September 8.
"By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard InSight to the Red Planet, you're showing that you're part of that journey and the future of space exploration," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
NASA's fly-your-name opportunity also comes with "frequent-flier" points to reflect a participant's personal participation in NASA's journey to Mars, that will span multiple missions and multiple decades.
The InSight mission offers the second such opportunity for space exploration fans to collect points by flying their names aboard a NASA mission. Last December, the names of 1.38 million people flew on a chip aboard the first flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to deep space destinations including Mars and an asteroid.
After InSight, the next opportunity to earn frequent flier points will be NASA's Exploration Mission-1, the first planned test flight bringing together the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule in preparation for human missions to Mars and beyond.
The InSight Mars lander will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in March 2016 and land on Mars on September 28, 2016.
Comments
0 comment