The odds that you’ll ever journey to certainly one of Jupiter’s moons is next-to-zero, however getting your name to icy Europa is simply a few keystrokes away. Earlier this month, NASA and the Library of Congress introduced their collaboration, Message in a Bottle—a undertaking providing anybody the chance to co-sign their name alongside an authentic poem penned by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón.
In doing so, every signee reserves a free, assured spot for their name to be laser etched into a microchip mounted aboard the photo voltaic powered Europa Clipper robotic spacecraft. Following its October 2024 scheduled launch, contributors’ names will then journey the roughly 6-year, 1.8-billion-mile voyage alongside Limón’s new, moon-inspired ode, “In Praise of Mystery” additionally to be engraved onto Europa Clipper.
[Related: We just got our most detailed look yet at Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa.]
Europa’s icy floor alongside the probably existence of an inner ocean have lengthy intrigued scientists as potential places that might assist extraterrestrial life. Although it gained’t truly contact down on the moon’s floor, Europa Clipper’s dozens of flybys will enable it to amass detailed data on its composition, geology, and vaporous geyser eruptions.
According to NASA, Europa Clipper will span roughly 100 toes after its photo voltaic arrays are deployed, and weigh-in at roughly 13,000 kilos—half of which is solely the propellant wanted to get it to its ultimate vacation spot. Following its scheduled October 2024 launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket, the craft will first journey round Mars earlier than hovering as soon as once more previous Earth to achieve some a lot wanted “gravity assist” momentum. After one other three years of journey, Clipper will move by Europa virtually 50 occasions starting in 2030, transmitting knowledge again house whereas observing “nearly the entire” moon to achieve a higher sense of its potential to assist life.
This isn’t the primary time NASA has inspired the general public so as to add their names to things bound for area, together with these aboard Artemis I, as effectively the Preservation Rover and InSight on their a number of journeys to Mars. In 1977, Voyager 1 and a couple of each launched with gold-plated phonographic information aboard that includes 90 minutes of music, together with a concerto by Bach and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
At the time of writing, over 305,000 individuals from practically each nation the world over have already signed the Europa Clipper’s roster, and earthbound contributors have till the top of 2023 to enter of their names. Until then, it’s also possible to tune into common livestreams of the Europa Clipper’s building and meeting.