NASA's 2,300-pound Mars rover, set to launch next summer, will be loaded with microchips etched with user-submitted names, the agency announced Tuesday. Members of the public can submit their names on NASA's website through the end of September.
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Scientists will use an electron beam to etch the names onto the silicon chips, and the text will be smaller than a thousandth the width of a human hair. A single dime-sized chip can hold more than a million names, according to NASA, and will travel to Mars beneath a glass cover.
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After you submit your name, you'll get a souvenir digital boarding pass reflecting a trip from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to Mars' Jezero Crater aboard an Atlas V-541 rocket. It even reflects the 313,536,649 frequent flyer miles a passenger could earn on a theoretical flight to the red planet.
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It's not the first time NASA has sent names into space. When the agency launched its InSight mission in 2018, it carried more than 2 million names to Mars.
While the rover is the next mission to Mars, there's a lot more in the works beyond that. The agency hopes to establish a permanent human settlement on Earth's moon within the next decade that will serve as a gateway to an eventual human mission to Mars. The rover will search for signs of past microbial life and collect samples that could potentially be returned to Earth on a future mission. It will also investigate how weather, climate and other conditions could impact a manned mission.