OVER 1.3L INDIANS SUBMIT NAMES TO GET ‘BOARDING PASSES’ FOR MARS

More than 1.3 lakh Indian space enthusiasts have submitted their names to NASA to be carried to Mars onboard the US space agency’s mission to the red planet next year.

Last month, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invited members of the public to send their names that will be carried on the InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission to Mars.

Those who submitted their names were provided online ‘boarding passes’ for the mission.

The names are being etched on a silicon wafer microchip using an electron beam to form letters with lines one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. The chip is affixed to the InSight lander deck and will remain on Mars forever. This chip will be carried on InSight mission to the red planet, which launches on May 5, next year.

A lot of Indians responded to NASA’s call for names for the Mars mission. The total number of names received from all over the world was 2,429,807.

US had the most number of people — 6,76,773 — sending their names, followed by China with 2,62,752 names.

India stands at number three with 1,38,899 names submitted for the mission.

“Mars continues to excite space enthusiasts of all ages,” said Bruce Banerdt, the InSight mission’s principal investigator, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.

“This opportunity lets them become a part of the spacecraft that will study the inside of the Red Planet,” said Banerdt.

The deadline to submit names was last week.

NEW DELHI: