NASA can't take regular citizens to Mars, but it can take their names there.
NASA will send your name to Mars on a microchip, as long as people sign up on its website before the midnight deadline on Sept. 8. As of Friday morning, Aug. 21, NASA's website counted upward of 169,000 InSight boarding passes submitted and that number will likely grow, given this unique opportunity.
Users are simply asked to sign up with some of their basic information before they're presented with a space-age boarding pass, which inlcudes a frequent flyer number, and additional details such as the date of the scheduled launch, the launch's location and the arrival site.
The names will be sent to Mars via NASA's InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) technology.
The scheduled launch date of the Atlas V 401 rocket currently stands as March 4, 2016, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. According to the generated boarding pass, upon signing up, the destination is listed as "Elysium Planitia, 'Plain of Ideal Happiness,' Mars." NASA has sent names to Mars before, not that it should discourage another group of users wanting to send their names to the fourth planet from the sun.
Away from the fun stuff, NASA countered an Internet rumor Aug. 19 about an asteroid hitting the Earth between Sept. 15 - Sept. 28, saying there's no such evidence of that seemingly catastrophic event happening.
"There is no scientific basis—not one shred of evidence—that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a press release statement.
And the mission to Mars continues without any disruption.
