FREE Opportunity to Have Your Name Engraved on Historic NASA Europa Clipper Spacecraft
NASA is currently organizing various space exploration missions to planets like Mars and Jupiter. In an exciting development, the space agency is providing a special chance for the general public to have their names engraved on a NASA spacecraft that will be sent to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. This initiative, known as Message in a Bottle, is a joint effort between NASA and the Library of Congress. Participants can not only have their names included but also sign alongside a poem written by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón.
Kaiverta was named after NASA’s spaceships
By registering, your name will be engraved with a laser on a microchip, which will be installed in the Europa Clipper robot spaceship powered by solar energy. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October 2024, and your name will travel 1.8 billion miles in about six years. Along with your name, the spaceship will also be engraved with Ada Limón’s poem “In Praise of Mystery”, inspired by the moon.
About the Europa Clipper mission
Jupiter’s moon Europa has intrigued scientists with its icy surface and possible internal ocean that could support extraterrestrial life. Although the spacecraft will not land on the moon’s surface, it will conduct numerous flybys to gather detailed information about its composition, geology, and steam eruptions from geysers.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft is about 100 feet long with solar panels and weighs about 13,000 pounds. About half of its weight is reserved for the propellant needed to get to Europe. After launching from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket, the spacecraft will orbit Mars and then gain momentum from Earth’s gravity before embarking on a three-year journey to Europe. There, it will make nearly 50 flybys starting in 2030, relaying valuable information back to Earth to help scientists understand the moon’s potential to support life.
Previous opportunities to get names on spaceships
This initiative is not the first time NASA has asked the public to include their names on objects destined for space. Similar opportunities were offered to Artemis I, the Preservation Rover and InSight to Mars. In 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 carried gold-plated audio discs containing music, including compositions by Bach and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”.
So if you want to leave your mark on a historic NASA mission exploring the wonders of space, go to the NASA website and log in!
