More than 2.4 million names to be sent to Mars in 2018: NASA

This is not the first time that NASA has carried out such a mission. In 2015, nearly 827,000 names were collected by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and attached to robotic InSight lander.

“The grand total once a second microchip is added in early 2018 will be 2,429,807 names. Space enthusiasts who signed up this last round shared their downloadable “boarding passes” on social media, complete with the total number of flight miles they’ve collected by participating in engagement initiatives for other Mars missions,” read NASA’s post.

NASA says it’s journey to Mars will span “multiple missions and multiple decades”, and “frequent flier” points will help the agency identify individual’s participation in this journey.

NASA’s InSight mission was essentially launched with an aim to investigate the deep interior of Mars. It is said to “look beyond the Martian surface” and study interior of the planet by listening for marsquakes. This will help scientists get a better idea of what the composition and structure of Mars’ interior is.

Thanks for submitting your name to travel on our InSight lander! 2.4+ million names will land on Mars in Nov. 2018: https://t.co/6ze07JPBUi pic.twitter.com/8JWuzc1fHS

— NASA (@NASA) November 6, 2017

Further, the mission is dedicated to understanding about the formation and evolution of rocky planets, including Earth.