NASA is offering people with the opportunity to send their names billions of kilometers into space on its next mission to Jupiter. Names submitted by the end of 2023 will be included on the Europa Clipper spacecraft, anticipated to enter Jupiter's orbit in 2030.
The "Message in a Bottle" project involves engraving people's names on the Europa Clipper spacecraft. Members of the public are encouraged to submit their names at no cost. "Message in a Bottle" draws from NASA's long tradition of shipping inspirational messages on spacecraft that have explored our solar system and beyond.
Urging people to send their names, NASA posted on Instagram and wrote, "Need a last-minute gift? Send their name to space! We're putting names onto our Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) to study the ocean moon of Jupiter you see here, but you have to sign up by Dec. 31, 2023."
See the post here:
The aircraft will also have a poem by US Poet Laureate Ada Limon, titled 'In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa' engraved.
The poem was presented at the Library of Congress earlier this year when Nasa's campaign was first unveiled.
"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," Ms Limon said.
"Eventually, what made the poem come together was realising that in pointing toward other planets, stars and moons, we are also recognising the enormous gift that is our planet Earth. To point outward is also to point inward."
Europa Clipper's main science goal is to determine whether there are places below Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its surface interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet, NASA said in a release.
