NASA?is giving citizens the chance to have their names sent?billions of kilometres into space on its upcoming trip to?Jupiter.?
Names submitted by the end of 2023 will be considered for inclusion on the Europa Clipper mission, which is scheduled to enter Jupiter's orbit in 2030.
The Europa Clipper spacecraft will be engraved with people's names as part of the "Message in a Bottle" project. The general public is urged to submit their names for free. "Message in a Bottle" builds on NASA's long history of sending inspirational messages to spacecraft exploring our solar system and beyond.
NASA asked people to send in their names on Instagram, writing, "Need a last-minute gift? Send their name into outer space! We're taking names for our Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) to research Jupiter's ocean moon, but you must sign up by December 31, 2023."
A poem titled 'In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa' by US Poet Laureate Ada Limon will also be etched aboard the airplane. When Nasa's campaign was first announced earlier this year, the poem was delivered at the Library of Congress.?
"Writing this poem was one of the greatest honours of my life, but also one of the most difficult tasks I've ever been assigned," she remarked.?
The primary scientific purpose of the Europa Clipper is to investigate whether there are areas beneath Jupiter's frozen moon, Europa, that could support life.
The three primary scientific objectives of the mission are to estimate the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean underneath, to examine its composition, and to characterise its geology.?
According to NASA, the extensive examination of Europa by the mission will help scientists better comprehend the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our globe. Check out the post here.
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