Cape Town - Fancy doing something a little extra-terrestrial?
Here is your chance: Nasa will engrave your name on to a microchip and take it on board its spacecraft InSight to Mars in March next year. And when the spacecraft lands on the Red Planet in September, your name on the microchip will be right there.
Jim Green, Nasa’s director of planetary science, said on Thursday: “Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface. 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.”
Once you have sent your name to Nasa, engineers will etch it on to a silicon microchip using and electron beam “E-beam” machine that specialises in etching very tiny features, less than the width of a human hair.
Not only will your name go to Mars, but you will also be able to clock up “frequent flyer” points.
“The points reflect an individual’s personal participation in the journey to Mars, which will span multiple missions and multiple decades,” Green said.
InSight will be launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in March 2016 and will land on Mars on September 28.
Nasa said this mission was the first dedicated to the investigation of the deep interior of the planet.
“It will place the first seismometer directly on the surface of Mars to measure Martian quakes and use seismic waves to learn about the planet's interior.
“This and other InSight investigations will improve our understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth,” Nasa said.
This is the second time Nasa has allowed people to send their names on board a spacecraft. In December last year, the agency collected the names of 1.38 million people from 246 countries.
Submissions will be accepted until September 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G
Cape Times