NASA: 11 million people sent their names to Mars

NASA's social media campaign allowed about 11 million people to submit their names on a virtual “printed” ticket to board the Perseverance rover on Mars.

There is no doubt that going to Mars is everyone's dream. But perhaps not everyone knows that the rover that landed on the red planet, “Perseverance,” carries on board nearly 11 million names, with which it landed in the Jezero crater in 2021. In previous years With the launch of the vehicle on the Red Planet, NASA opened a social campaign through which anyone could send a ticket to Mars with their name printed on it. Many did it: 10,932,295 people to be exact. These names are now on board Perseverance, engraved on three strips the size of a fingernail.

NASA campaign

The peculiarity of this initiative is that NASA sent 11 million Earth names to Mars. like? He “printed” it on three strips the size of a fingernail. The machine the scientists use to transcribe all the names is called the “E-beam” and it allows them to write infinitely small lines, less than 1 micron in size, which is much less than the width of a human hair. These micromachines are typically used to fabricate high-precision models at JPL's Microinstrumentation Laboratory.

What else did we send to Mars?

Along with the 11 million names, NASA technicians also included 155 final suggestions for the “Naming the Rover” contest. These include the winner who chose “Perseverance” and the winner who suggested the name of the “Ingenuity” unmanned helicopter that accompanied “Perseverance” to Mars.

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