NASA proposes sending your name to the moon during a mission planned for 2024

The US agency is offering to take your first and last names on board the VIPER spacecraft, which is scheduled to explore the Moon's south pole at the end of the year.

Do you want to write your name in the history of space invasions? NASA can make your dream come true. On the occasion of the VIPER mission, scheduled to be launched at the end of the year, the American agency is offering to send your first and last name… to the moon.

To do this, nothing is easier. Simply complete – before March 15 – A Short form on NASA website. The collected names will be loaded onto the spacecraft (spacecraft, editor's note) that will explore the south pole of the Moon at the end of 2024, NASA noted in a report. I reportedwithout specifying whether the titles will be engraved on a physical medium or downloaded into a memory placed on the lunar module.

Exploring the South Pole of the Moon

The VIPER spacecraft is tasked with exploring “the rugged terrain of the lunar South Pole and collecting valuable data that will help us better understand the history of the Moon and the environment to which we plan to send Artemis astronauts,” specifies NASA, which plans to send astronauts to set foot on the Moon in 2025. This is the first since 1972.

The mission is scheduled to last 100 days. The US space agency explains that “VIBER will rely on its solar panels and batteries” to “survive extreme temperatures and harsh lighting conditions, while operating a series of scientific instruments designed to collect data on the properties and concentrations of lunar ice.”

The VIPER mission targets Mons Mouton, a plateau-shaped geological formation that dominates the surrounding surface at an altitude of 6,000 metres. This engraving is named in honor of African-American mathematician Melba Roy Moton (1925-1990), and identifies Satellite city of Toulouse.

NASA regularly offers to symbolically connect astronomy enthusiasts to its missions. As part of the planned launch in 2024 of its Clipper satellite, dedicated to exploring Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, the agency will integrate into the machine an electronic chip containing hundreds of names of Earthlings.