YOU CAN SEND YOUR NAME TO MARS, IF YOU WANT TO...

NASA is sending a spacecraft to Mars next year that is going to look inside the Red Planet and attempt to learn things about the planet we have never known before. Will your name be along for the ride? well, NASA wants it to be, but you have to sign up now!

The NASA InSight lander is heading to the Red Planet in May 2018. With a month-long period targeted as the ideal timeframe, and aboard the craft will be a pair of silicon chips, etched with the names of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people. The first chip is already full, but NASA just opened up registration for the names to be added to the second chip, and you can still get in on the action. 

Getting your name to go to Mars is as easy as heading over to NASA's InSight mission page, typing in your name and general location info, as well as your email and hitting "submit". For your participation, you will get an InSight "Boarding Pass" and "Frequent Flier Miles", which can be added up over the course of various NASA missions on which your name was added. 

Being part of the NASA InSight mission you will also get early notifications of the subsequent mission where you can add your name, including the Orion exploration mission and Mars Mission 2020. 

Having your name physically present on Mars is pretty neat, even if it's microscopically etched onto a tiny piece of silicon that nobody probably will ever see again.