NASA sends names to Europa

​NASA can send your name to Jupiter's moon Europa

​The U.S. space agency NASA is inviting people to have their names engraved on a microchip bound for a moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft Europa Clipper will set off for Jupiter's moon Europa. The craft is set to embark on its 2.6-billion-kilometre voyage in October 2024. The journey through the heavens will take six years. Sending the names is part of a time-capsule project called "Message in a Bottle". The names will be etched next to a piece of poetry by U.S. poet Ada Limon called, "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa". NASA said: "The poem connects the two water worlds - Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored."

​More than 700,000 names have already been submitted to NASA. Engineers will use an electron beam to stencil them onto a tiny silicon microchip. NASA said: "Each line of text is smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair (75 nanometres)." It added: "Riding on the exterior of the spacecraft, the poem and names will be like a message in a bottle as they make about 50 close flybys of [Europa's] ocean world." Europa is one of Jupiter's 95 officially recognized moons. The Europa Clipper will gather data on the moon's atmosphere, icy crust and ocean. NASA said: "Europa is such a promising place to better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond Earth."

Multiple Choice

NASA wants people to engrave their names on the side of a rocket.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The NASA spacecraft is called the Jupiter Clipper.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The journey to Europa is 2.6 billion kilometres long

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

A poem connecting Earth and Europa will also be on the space ship

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

NASA has already been sent more than a million names.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Each line of text for the names is as thin as a human hair.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

The spaceship will fly past the moon Europa 50 times.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

NASA hopes to know more about habitable places in space

• True

• False