NASA is all set to send over 2.4 million names to Mars, all etched on a microchip, according to the space agency’s website.
In October this year, Nasa had invited people to send their names to Mars and received over 1.6 million requests. The microchip will be carried on NASA's upcoming InSight mission, which launches in May 2018.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, made a similar request in 2015, after which NASA had received over 827, 000 names. The grand total once a second microchip is added in early 2018 will be 2,429,807 names.
Space enthusiasts who signed up for this last round shared their downloadable "boarding passes" on social media, complete with the total number of flight miles they've collected by participating in engagement initiatives for other Mars missions.
Actor Willliam Shatner, who famously portrayed Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek series and a number of movies, is one of the 2.4 million names being sent to Mars aboard NASA's InSight lander. The actor recently shared a picture of his ‘boarding pass’ on Twitter.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, also shared a picture of his boarding pass.
InSight will be NASA’s first mission to look deep beneath Martian surface. The mission aims to study quakes travel through geologic material at different speeds and give scientists a glimpse of the composition and structure of the planet's inside.
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)