You can even become a frequent flyer on future Mars-mission vehicles.
So it may not be as cool as actually going out to Mars yourself, but sending your name there is probably the closest any of us will come to the Red Planet’s surface.
NASA is letting Mars lovers around the world participate in its next journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip that will be aboard NASA’s InSight Mars lander set for launch next year.
You can submit your name here until September 8, 2015.
NASA will also set up a frequent flyer points system which will show how often a person’s name has made it Mars since the agency is planning multiple Mars missions over the next few decades.
This isn’t the first time NASA has sent names into space, though. Last year 1.38 million people flew on a chip aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to deep space destinations including Mars and an asteroid.
After InSight, the next chance to rack up frequent flier points will be NASA’s Exploration Mission-1, the first planned test flight combining the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule which will prepare for the first manned flight to Mars.
InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, in March 2016 and land on Mars Sept. 28, 2016 and will take a deeper look at the planet’s interior. It will also place the first seismometer on the surface of Mars to measure quakes and use seismic waves and deploy a heat probe that will get researchers deeper into the planet than ever before.
Story via NASA.
