Around 7,000 people from Cyprus have so far registered their names to be sent on chips to Mars aboard NASA’s Mars 2020 mission.
NASA invited the public from all over the world to submit their names to fly aboard the next Mars mission and receive a souvenir boarding pass.
Although it will be years before the first humans set foot on Mars, NASA is giving the public an opportunity to send their names — stencilled on chips to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which represents the initial leg of humanity’s first round trip to another planet.
The rover is scheduled to launch as early as July 2020, with the spacecraft expected to touch down on Mars in February 2021.
From now until Sept. 30, you can add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:
https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020Pass
Until today, almost 8 million people registered their names. Most of them are from Turkey (2,492,874), followed by India (1,003,241), USA (839,829), China (211,721) and Israel (195,047). Cypriots reach so far 6,922 and Greeks 17,814.
As NASA states, the opportunity to send your name to Mars comes with a souvenir boarding pass and “frequent flyer” points. This is part of a public engagement campaign to highlight missions involved with NASA’s journey from the Moon to Mars.
Last November, NASA’s InSight rover landed on Mars carrying chips with the names of 2.4 million people.  Among them there are 983 Cypriots.
The Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of past microbial life, characterise the planet’s climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, NASA says.
NASA plans to return to the moon in 2024 with the Artemis Mission and send the first astronauts to Mars in the mid 2030s.
(Cyprus News Agency)
