[meteorite-list] Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission (InSight)

[Ron Baalke]

August 18, 2015

RELEASE 15-171

Send Your Name to Mars on NASA's Next Red Planet Mission

Mars enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA's journey to Mars 
by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet 
aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year.

"Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the 
surface," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters 
in Washington. "By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard 
InSight to the Red Planet, you're showing that you're part of that journey 
and the future of space exploration."

Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard 
InSight, go to:

http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G

The fly-your-name opportunity comes with "frequent flier" points to 
reflect an individual's personal participation in NASA's journey to Mars, 
which will span multiple missions and multiple decades. The InSight mission 
offers the second such opportunity for space exploration fans to collect 
points by flying their names aboard a NASA mission, with more opportunities 
to follow.

Last December, the names of 1.38 million people flew on a chip aboard the 
first flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to deep 
space destinations including Mars and an asteroid. After InSight, the next 
opportunity to earn frequent flier points will be NASA's Exploration 
Mission-1, the first planned test flight bringing together the Space Launch 
System rocket and Orion capsule in preparation for human missions to Mars and 
beyond.

InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in March 2016 
and land on Mars Sept. 28, 2016. The mission is the first dedicated to the 
investigation of the deep interior of the planet. It will place the first 
seismometer directly on the surface of Mars to measure Martian quakes and use 
seismic waves to learn about the planet's interior. It also will deploy a 
self-hammering heat probe that will burrow deeper into the ground than any 
previous device on the Red Planet. These and other InSight investigations 
will improve our understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky 
planets, including Earth.

For additional information about the InSight mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/insight/main/index.html 

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

https://www.facebook.com/NASAInSight

and

https://twitter.com/nasainsight

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