Next time NASA lands on Mars, they want your name on the lander.

August 21, 2015 2:39 PM

Your name could be on Mars in the next several months. You've already paid for it, so you might as well go. In March 2016, NASA is launching its Insight lander, which will be the first Mars mission to probe beneath the surface of the Red Planet and explore its interior in-depth. (In-depth, get it? Nevermind) They're offering to micro-etch the name of any Earthling who wishes on the lander. Here's where to sign up.

The deadline in September 8. It only takes a second and it's free.

Also, yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the world's first successful Mars landing, Viking 1.

posted by Sleeper (28 comments total)

Ok, who's gonna be the first person to sign up Deez Nuts?
posted by Itaxpica at 2:40 PM on August 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

Sorry, buddy. Maybe take better music this time?
posted by phunniemee at 2:51 PM on August 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

My name's already been to space over a decade ago.

I'm such a space hipster.

A Spipster, if you will.
posted by symbioid at 2:52 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

OOOOOOOOOOOh you get a fancy ticket and everything!
posted by symbioid at 2:53 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

> Maybe take better music this time?

Something appropriate for a roadtrip, perhaps.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:53 PM on August 21, 2015

I sure hope their etcher 1) is Unicode-compatible and 2) has sufficient resolution to write Chinese characters. But given that they assume every name is broken up into a "first name" and a "last name", and that even if their etcher is Unicode-compatible it cannot capture information not reflected in Unicode (compare this boarding pass for Momofuku Ando with his name as written in Japan, a consequence of Han unification), call me skeptical.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:04 PM on August 21, 2015

Apparently even in the middle of a lecture on such bad assumptions I am vulnerable to them. The text on the boarding pass may differ depending on your system. Here's an image of what I see.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:07 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ok, who's gonna be the first person to sign up Deez Nuts?

Go ahead, not really my bag.
posted by resurrexit at 3:12 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Ok, who's gonna be the first person to sign up Deez Nuts?

The first thing I did when I saw this post was do just that, but I misspelled it DEEZ NUTZ :`(
posted by blakewest at 3:21 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the world's first successful Mars landing, Viking 1.

To clarify, it was the 40th anniversary of the launch; Viking 1 landed July 20th 1976, the 9th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
posted by foonly at 3:22 PM on August 21, 2015

Wait, wait... InSight is launching from Vandenberg? That's kinda weird (Vandenberg is in California, so a launch that doesn't take advantage of the Earth's spin -- an eastward launch -- means more delta-V to make up, and an eastward launch in Florida goes right over the ocean).

I work 4 floors up from the InSight team and now I have to go all the way down there and find someone and ask them why. On Monday, because today's one of our day-off Fridays.
posted by chimaera at 3:29 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

The InSight spacecraft is based on the Phoenix lander launched to the red planet in 2007. Phoenix was sized to fly on the smaller Delta 2 rocket, meaning an Atlas 5 has plenty of power to dispatch InSight to Mars from Florida or California. (link)

OK, I guess this sort of makes sense, but it's still a little weird to me.
posted by chimaera at 3:32 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thank you for sponsoring the Orion Mars Mission of 2022! Your name was etched on the:

MALE LIQUID WASTE TUBE O-RING PART NUMBER 34TY

for our intrepid astronauts to see and take a moment to reflect upon your ongoing support that is vital to our continued mission of solar system exploration...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:37 PM on August 21, 2015 [5 favorites]

Could be worst, could be the Solid Waste Tube O-ring.
posted by leotrotsky at 3:53 PM on August 21, 2015

I sure hope their etcher 1) is Unicode-compatible and 2) has sufficient resolution to write Chinese characters.
But given that they assume every name is broken up into a "first name" and a "last name", and that even if their etcher is Unicode-compatible it cannot capture information not reflected in Unicode (compare this boarding pass for Momofuku Ando with his name as written in Japan, a consequence of Han unification), call me skeptical.

Their FAQ invites people to contact them about weird edge cases (e.g., my country's not listed, or their filter thinks your name's too sweary), so I wonder if you had a name that couldn't be satisfactorily represented in unicode, or transliterated to your satisfaction, and you contact them, they could do something about it, like accepting a png maybe.

What minimum resolution would you think should be used when writing multilanguage characters at sub-micron sizes before launching them 30 million miles from any human, for best readability?
posted by aubilenon at 4:17 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

4chan is going to game this just like they did to get Moot as person of the year.

It's gonna be the xXMLG-NOSCOPE-420blazeitXx or something.
posted by emptythought at 4:29 PM on August 21, 2015

In an attempt to turn this into history's greatest ever game of fetch, I have $5 here for the first person who manages to locate their engraved name, in the probe, in person, post-launch.
posted by anonymisc at 4:30 PM on August 21, 2015 [5 favorites]

I hope they don't allow duplicate names, or else one side of the lander will be all
"VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY, VOX DAY,"
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:46 PM on August 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

CHA
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:07 PM on August 21, 2015 [3 favorites]

Reminds me again of when I lost my wallet in which I carried my PanAm "First Moon Flights Club" card, issued around 1968/69. Couldn't have cared less about the cash. That was a sad day.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 5:07 PM on August 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

I'm thinking about signing up as IsA CompleteFuckhead and just letting fate decide who loses.
posted by eriko at 6:16 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Maybe take better music this time?

Yeah!
posted by teponaztli at 6:36 PM on August 21, 2015

I am already an NPC in Elite: Dangerous...would it be greedy to launch my name into actual space too?
posted by howfar at 6:58 PM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Your name was etched on the:
MALE LIQUID WASTE TUBE O-RING PART NUMBER 34TY

You should be honoured. A lot of people seem to be queuing up to take the piss out of them.
posted by ambrosen at 1:48 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

howfar: "I am already an NPC in Elite: Dangerous...would it be greedy to launch my name into actual space too?"

Details?
posted by Samizdata at 2:42 AM on August 22, 2015

During the Kickstarter, if you backed at £40, your name got added to the database for NPCs. So, in actual fact I am probably several NPCs. I only just upgraded my computer enough to actually play the bloody game, so I haven't gone searching for myself as yet. But if you ever see a "Daniel Onions" flitting about, please be gentle with him, for it is my memory your pulse lasers target.
posted by howfar at 4:27 AM on August 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

TRUMP!

(You, with the spacecraft, how much for Trump exclusive lettering)

[will you be emigrating to Mars, sir?]
posted by clavdivs at 11:49 AM on August 22, 2015

Reminds me again of when I lost my wallet in which I carried my PanAm "First Moon Flights Club" card, issued around 1968/69

Wow, never heard of those before...I'd be sad too. Inspired, evidently, by the Orion III from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
posted by foonly at 3:39 AM on August 23, 2015