Do you want potential aliens to know your name? As part of the planned 2024 launch of its Clipper satellite, intended for exploration of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, NASA will embed an electronic chip into the machine. This will contain a poem and the US Space Agency offers those who wish to add their first and last name to send them more than 650 million kilometers from Earth, indicates ABC News.
Europa could have “all the necessary ingredients for life as we know it,” NASA says.
Simple form
To participate in this initiative open to all, you must enter the Clipper mission website using this link and complete the form indicating your name in the box below the mention “First name” and your last name under “last name“. You will then be asked to provide an email address, your country of residence and your postal code.
As of this writing, more than 136,000 names have been registered on the site, including more than 42,000 in the United States and 1,200 in France. More surprising: Iran is the second country with the most participations at this point: more than 26,000.
The text that will accompany a multitude of names is signed by the poet Ada Limón, winner of the prestigious United States Grand Prize for Poetry in 2022. It is made up of 21 verses, among which is the following: “And it is not darkness that unites us, not the cold distance of space, but the offering of water, each drop of rain, each stream, each pulse, each vein”.
The chip is to be placed under a metal plate attached to Clipper and engraved with the inscription “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europe.”
I hope to find life forms.
The Clipper satellite is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and the device should arrive near Jupiter and Europa in April 2030, according to NASA forecasts. Then Clipper should pass near Europa several dozen times during a mission that is expected to last several years.
The objective of the mission is to study this moon that “shows solid evidence of the presence of water under its ice layer” and that would measure between 15 and 25 kilometers thick, to find out if “it would be capable of supporting life,” NASA said. . According to estimates by the agency, Europa could contain twice as much water as Earth. Europa’s diameter is about 90% that of our Moon.
In April, the European Space Agency launched the Juice mission, named after a probe to explore Jupiter’s icy moons, including Europa. Juice’s arrival near Jupiter is scheduled for July 2031.
Source: BFM TV
