NASA’s second spacecraft to explore Mars, the InSight lander, will launch in Mar. 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In an effort to give global citizens opportunities to join the journey, the U.S. government created a special website for people to submit their names by Sep. 9 to travel on the next journey to Mars.
InSight will collect information on the Red Planet for NASA researchers to learn more about other rocky planets, including Earth. NASA expects that its fly-your-name event will draw people’s attention to the mission because it gives them a chance to participate in it. Last year, about 1.38 million names flew aboard Orion, NASA’s first spacecraft to Mars. NASA has now added all the submitted names to a silicon microchip to fly aboard InSight.
NASA includes names every time it sends a spacecraft to Mars. It also gives individuals “frequent-flier points,” as an indication of their participation level. InSight, and the names of millions of people, will land on Mars on Sep. 28, 2016.