Editor's Note: (7/15/2024) We are no longer accepting signups for Send Your Name to Mars on Perseverance since the mission is already on the Red Planet. Opportunities to sign up to send your name to Mars on a future mission will be announced closer to a launch date. Anyone who already signed up to send your name on NASA’s next Mars mission still has a reserved spot.
When the Perseverance rover safely touched down on the Martian surface, inside Jezero Crater, on Feb. 18, 2021, it was also a safe landing for the nearly 11 million names on board.
How did NASA collect the names?
NASA's "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign invited people around the globe to submit their names to ride along on the rover. And people did – with a grand total of 10,932,295 names submitted. Those names now sit on the surface of Mars, written on three fingernail-sized chips on board the Perseverance rover.
How were the chips made?
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stenciled the names onto the chips using an electron beam. The "E-beam" machine they used allows the writing of very tiny features: less than 1 micron, much less than the width of a human hair. They normally use this machine for high-precision fabrication in JPL's Microdevices Laboratory.
Along with the nearly 11 million names, engineers also included the essays of 155 finalists in NASA's “Name 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, before launch, the chips were mounted to a small plate attached to the center of the aft crossbeam on Perseverance, where they are visible to cameras on the rover's mast.
Also on the plate: a laser-etched graphic depicting Earth and Mars connected by the rays of the Sun that gives light to both. Written in Morse code in the Sun’s rays is a hidden message, “Explore As One.” The illustration pays tribute to the plaques on the Pioneer spacecraft and the Golden Records carried into space by Voyagers 1 and 2.
How can I sign up to send my name on the next Mars mission?