NASA Invites Public To Send ‘Message in a Bottle’ Aboard Europa Clipper

WASHINGTON, DC (IANS) – NASA has launched a new campaign offering the public the opportunity to have their names stenciled onto a microchip, which will ride aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft next year. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled for a journey to Jupiter and its moon, Europa, in October 2024.

As part of the ‘Message in a Bottle’ campaign, names received before 11:59 p.m. EST, December 31, 2023, will be stenciled onto a microchip, along with the poem written by US Poet Laureate Ada Limon, titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” the space agency said in a statement. The poem and the names will be like a message in a bottle, traveling billions of miles as the mission investigates whether the ocean thought to lie beneath Europa’s icy crust could support life.

Participants can also create and download a customizable souvenir: an illustration of their name on a message in a bottle against a rendering of Europa and Jupiter, to commemorate the experience. Participants are encouraged to share their enthusiasm on social media using the hashtag #SendYourName.

“‘Message in a Bottle’ is the perfect convergence of science, art, and technology, and we are excited to share with the world the opportunity to be a part of Europa Clipper’s journey,” said Nicola Fox, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, in a statement. “I just love the thought that our names will be traveling across our solar system aboard the radiation-tolerant spacecraft that seeks to unlock the secrets of Jupiter’s frozen moon,” she added.

Europa Clipper, currently being assembled at JPL, will travel 2.6 billion kilometers to reach the Jupiter system, where it will arrive in 2030. During its mission, it will orbit Jupiter and fly by Europa approximately 50 times, covering an additional 800,000 kilometers. A suite of science instruments will gather data on the subsurface ocean, the ice crust, and the moon’s atmosphere.

The main science goal of Europa Clipper is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Europa that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.