When the Perseverance rover safely reached the Martian surface inside Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, it was also a safe landing for the nearly 11 million names on board.
How did NASA collect the name?
GODMOTHERSend your name to Mars“The campaign invited people from all over the world to present their names to ride the rover. And people did – with a total of 10,932,295 names submitted. These names are now on the surface of Mars, written on three tokens of angular size on board the Perseverance rover.
How were the chips made?
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stamped the name on chips using an electron beam. The “E-beam” machine they used allows you to write very small features: less than 1 micron, much less than the width of a human hair. Normally, they use this machine for high-precision manufacturing in the JPL microdevice laboratory.
Along with the nearly 11 million names, the engineers also included the essays of 155 finalists in “NASA”Call it the Rover“Essay contest. This included the winning essay for “Perseverance”, As well as the essay for“Ingenuity, ”The name selected for the experimental helicopter that accompanied the rover to Mars.
At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, prior to launch, the chips were mounted on a small plate attached to the center of the stern sleeper on Perseverance, where they are visible to the rooms on the rover’s mast.
Also on the plate: a laser engraved graphic depicting Earth and Mars connected by the Sun’s rays that give light to both. Written in Morse code in the Sun’s rays is a hidden message, “Explore as one.” The illustration pays homage to the plates on the Pioneer spacecraft and the Gold Records carried into space by Voyagers 1 and 2.
How can I sign up to send my name on the next mission to Mars?
If you sent your name to Mars on Perseverance, you can get your boarding pass back Here. If you missed this opportunity, you can sign up send your name on a future mission to Mars.
Summary ideas
| The size of the chips | Each of the three chips is the size of a nail. |
| Chip location | Placed on the upper left corner of a plate on the transverse cross member of the rover |
| Total names sent | 10,932,295 |
| Participating countries | See the participants’ maps creep and US states |