This is the latest call to board to keep your name on the NASA Mars 2020 Rover before launching on the Red Planet. The September 30 deadline for NASA's Send Your Mars Campaign gives the mission plenty of time to fix the names presented – over 9.4 million so far – on a chip that will be attached to the Mars 2020 rover.
This rover is scheduled to launch in July 2020 and is expected to land on Mars in February 2021. The Mars 2020 rover represents the initial leg of humanity's first planned voyage to another planet.
With this robotic scientist weighing 2300 pounds (1
"Until we are ready to launch this historic Mars mission, we want everyone to participate in this study," said Thomas Zurbbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Washington Mission Directorate. "This is an exciting time for NASA as we embark on this voyage to answer deep questions about our neighboring planet and even the origins of life itself."
The ability to send your name to Mars, which opened on 21 May 2019, comes with a souvenir board and frequent flyer points. It's part of a public engagement campaign to highlight missions related to NASA's trip from the moon to Mars. Miles (or kilometers) are awarded for each "flight" with the respective digital downloadable mission packs. More than 2 million names have flown on the NASA InSight mission to Mars, giving each "pilot" about 300 million frequent miles of aircraft (nearly 500 million frequency flying miles).
You can add your name to the list and get a souvenir voucher to Mars here:
https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass
The JPL Micro-Adaptation Laboratory will use an electron beam to make silicone chip template with text lines smaller than one thousandth of human hair width (75 nanometers). At this size, millions of names can be written on a single chip with a dime size. The chip will ride on the rover under a glass lid.
NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions, including to the moon, to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with the return of the astronauts to the moon by 2024, the agency intends to establish a permanent human presence on and around the moon by 2028 through NASA Artemis' lunar exploration plans
. The NASA launch program, based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for managing the launch. Mars 2020 will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.
Children in American schools in grades K-12 also have a chance to name the rover itself. For details on the competition that ends November 1, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/name2020
For more information on Mars 2020, visit:
https: //www.nasa.gov / mars2020
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020
For more information on NASA's Moon-to-Mars plans, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon- to -mars
News Media Contact
Gray Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
gray.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov
Jia-Rui Cook / DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
818-354-0724 / 818-393-9011
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov
2019-188
Source link