Alexander Lewis
Nov 28, 2023
Perseverance rover didn't travel alone to the Red Planet — it packed something special: three silicon chips decked out with an impressive 10,932,295 etched names of Earthlings. Yep, NASA loves taking us on board for their space adventures.
But hey, there's more cosmic exploration coming up! Say hello to Europa Clipper, heading off next fall to check out Jupiter's moon, Europa. It's on a quest to sniff around the gas and dust above the moon's surface, trying to figure out if life might hang out beneath.
This spacecraft plans to circle Europa a whopping 50 times to find spots that could support life under its surface. But hold up. We're not just talking science here. We're also talking about how hyped folks are to send their names on another space journey. Europa Clipper, like Perseverance, will carry a tiny chip engraved with people's names — microscopic but totally there.
NASA kicked off the "Message in a Bottle" campaign in June, and guess what? Almost 900,000 space enthusiasts have signed up! That's a lot of names zooming into space along with a cool poem by US Poet Laureate Ada Limon called "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa."
Here's the deal — if you want your name soaring deep into space, time's ticking. NASA is closing the sign-up on December 31, 2023. That's less than two months away! And guess what? You'll get a rad illustration of your name on a "message in a bottle" against a backdrop of Europa and Jupiter.
