Most of us-in fact not a single one of us, will ever set our foot upon the red lands of Mars. The New Horizons spacecraft, which recently flew by Pluto but launched to space in 2006, carried more than 430,000 names with it on its close approach to the dwarf planet. Either way, with the opportunity entirely free of cost and the registration hardly taking a minute, it won’t that much of a waste of time to visit the NASA website and have your name registered for a ride into the space.
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Submissions, available on NASA website, will be accepted till September 8.
Next March, NASA will send the InSight lander to the Red Planet, and onboard will be a silicon chip containing the names of every Earthling who signed on for the virtual mission. You can by submitting your name with NASA.
According to Jim Green, director of planetary science at Nasa headquarters in Washington, “Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface”. When you sign up, you’ll be assigned a frequent flyer miles number, as well as an account for future travels.
You don’t need to be upset if you don’t get an opportunity to go to Mars as you could raise your spirit by sending your name.
NASA is asking members of the public to submit their names to fly to Mars aboard the space agency’s next lander, launching to the red planet in 2016.
Orion EM-1 will launch atop NASA’s mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and NASA just conducted a key test firing on August 13 of the first stage engines that will power the stack to on a mission to the Moon -detailed in my recent story here.
NASA’s next mission to Mars, the InSight lander, will study the deep interior of Mars to advance understanding of the early history of all rocky planets, including Earth.
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The mission will be the first of its kind; devoted to the deep interior of the planet. A self-hammering probe will be positioned to observe the geology underneath the planet’s surface.
