When the Perseverance rover safely touched 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 pick up the names?
From NASA “Send your name to Mars“The campaign invited people from all over the world to submit their names to travel in the rover. And people did, with a total of 10,932,295 names submitted. These names are now on the surface of Mars, written in three nail-sized tokens aboard the Perseverance rover.
How were the tokens made?
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory drew the names on the chips using an electron beam. The “E-beam” machine they used allows you to write very small functions: less than 1 micron, much less than the width of a human hair. This machine is typically used for high-precision fabrication in the JPL microdevice lab.
Along with nearly 11 million names, the engineers also included the trials of 155 finalists at NASAGive the Rover a name”Essay competition. This included the winning essay of “Perseverance“As well as the essay for”Wit“, 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 beam of Perseverance, where they are visible to the cameras of the rover’s mast.
Also on the plate: a laser engraved graphic depicting Earth and Mars connected by the sun’s rays giving light to both. Written in Morse code in the rays of the Sun there is a hidden message: “Explore as one.” The illustration pays homage to the plates of the Pioneer spacecraft and the gold disks transported into space by travelers 1 and 2.
How do I register to send my name to the next Mars mission?
If you have sent your name to Mars on Perseverance, you can recover your boarding pass here. If you missed this opportunity, you can sign up send your name on a future mission to Mars.
Quick facts
| Chip size | Each of the three tiles is the size of a fingernail. |
| Chip location | Attached to the upper left corner of a plate on the stern beam of the rover |
| Total names submitted | 10,932,295 |
| Participating countries | See maps of participants countries i States of the United States |