[meteorite-list] NASA Invites Public to Send Names And Messages to Mars (MAVEN)

[Ron Baalke]

May 01, 2013

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Nancy Neal Jones 
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 
301-286-0039                          
nancy.n.jones at nasa.gov 

Stephanie Renfrow 
University of Colorado, Boulder 
303-735-5814 
stephanie.renfrow at lasp.colorado.edu 


RELEASE: 13-125

NASA INVITES PUBLIC TO SEND NAMES AND MESSAGES TO MARS

WASHINGTON --  NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their 
names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a 
spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere. 

Scheduled for launch in November, the DVD will be in NASA's Mars 
Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. The DVD is part 
of the mission's Going to Mars Campaign coordinated at the University 
of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics 
(CU/LASP). 

The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged 
to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku. 
However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all 
submissions is July 1. An online public vote to determine the top 
three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin July 15. 

"The Going to Mars campaign offers people worldwide a way to make a 
personal connection to space, space exploration, and science in 
general, and share in our excitement about the MAVEN mission," said 
Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach 
program at CU/LASP. 

Participants who submit their names to the Going to Mars campaign will 
be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their 
involvement with the MAVEN mission. 

"This new campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation 
of explorers and excite them about science, technology, engineering 
and math," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from 
CU/LASP. "I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide 
community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red 
Planet's atmosphere." 

MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding 
the Martian upper atmosphere. The spacecraft will investigate how the 
loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on 
the surface. 

"This mission will continue NASA's rich history of inspiring and 
engaging the public in spaceflight in ongoing Mars exploration," said 
David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center in Greenbelt, Md. 

MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado 
at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The 
university will provide science operations, science instruments and 
lead Education and Public Outreach. Goddard manages the project and 
provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed 
Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible 
for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley 
Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the 
mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides 
navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra 
telecommunications relay hardware and operations. 

To participate in the Going to Mars campaign, visit 

http://lasp.colorado.edu/maven/goingtomars 

For more information on MAVEN, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/maven 
	
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