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Journalism of Courage
NASA’s third and final mission to Mars with the Perseverance rover to hunt for life on the planet is set to launch Thursday, and Twitter is customising a special look for all its users who are ready to be transported to the red planet.
The Perseverance rover will include 10.9 million names of those who registered earlier, but NASA is taking reservations to send names on its next flight to Mars.
NASA had earlier launched a “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign inviting people around the world to submit their names to sent with the agency’s next rover to Mars and received applications from over 10 million people. These names have been stencilled with an electron beam onto three fingernail-sized silicon chips, along with the essays of the 155 finalists in NASA’s “Name the Rover” contest.
Twitter also decided to join in the fun and give people new profile pictures to celebrate the ambitious mission. The official account of Twitter tweeted: “Like for liftoff!” and had a surprise for those doing it. NASA also had some praise for the initiative.
Twitter also changed the profile picture on its official account and updated its cover photo as an ode to the mission. “Who wants to be transported off this planet?” the handle tweeted.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288554760430329856
For those who replied, Twitter photoshopped their faces into photos of astronauts.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288600772196929542
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288564381333118976
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https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288593968821702656
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https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288590217809551361
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https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288815049448906754
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288814711945879552
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/1288786740820316161
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The rover called Perseverance is NASA’s brawniest and brainiest Martian rover yet. It sports the latest landing tech, plus the most cameras and microphones ever assembled to capture the sights and sounds of Mars. Its super-sanitized sample return tubes — for rocks that could hold evidence of past Martian life — are the cleanest items ever bound for space.
Once on the surface, Perseverance will scrounge for evidence of past microscopic life in an ancient lakebed, and gather the most promising rock samples for future pickup. NASA is teaming up with the European Space Agency to return the samples to Earth around 2031.
