As part of an ongoing NASA initiative, the space organization invited people to submit their names online to be included on a dime-sized microchip to land on the red planet later this year.

So far, more than half-a-million Americans have submitted their names, with Californians dominating the list. Last week, Texas overtook Florida for the second place spot.

Today is the deadline for submitting names to be etched on the rover, said Michelle Viotti, manager for NASA's Mars public engagement program.

"I think people just want to connect to exploration and have a symbol of themselves out there," Viotti said. "People are stepping off their home planet for the first time with robots."

The rover, named Curiosity by a Kansas sixth-grader, will include two microchips. One will list the engraved signatures of the mission team and visitors to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The other chip will list the hundreds of thousands of names NASA has collected though the online submission process worldwide.


http://marsparticipate.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/participate/sendyourname/

Done did it!

If it's about the stars, i'm up there!

Why not actually GO to Mars instead?

My roommate keeps going on and on about going to mars. However she is too lazy to take out the trash, nor do her college work before the night before.


I have told her it will take disciple, sadly she is completely unaware of how undisciplined she really is.

I asked her what kind of atronaut she will be, the answer,"how can I know before I finish my college?" I laughed.

I even felt so bad for her one day, that I did a data mine against wiki for every college degree of every astronaut that ever left earth, that was 2 months ago, she still hasn't looked it over. hahaha

Basically . . . easier said then done! :P

I think it's a plot by the government to easier track our names, IP addys, email, etc. *Puts foil back on windows*

Yea cause they need more than my SSN, my vehicle registration, my drivers license, my yearly taxes ect ect ect ect.

I'd be interested in reading that.



"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
~JFK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRbkBAOGEw

For like $10,000 you can send a small amount of your bodys ashes to space.