Send Your Name to the Moon with New Lunar Mission
May 2, 2008
Source: NASA
NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the Moon onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft.
The Send Your Name to the Moon website enables everyone to participate in the lunar adventure and place their names in orbit around the Moon for years to come. Participants can submit their information at http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/index.php, print a certificate, and have their name entered into a database. The database will be placed on a microchip that will be integrated onto the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008.
"Everyone who sends their name to the Moon, like I'm doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers," said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The LRO mission is the first step in NASA's plans to return humans to the Moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?"
The orbiter, comprising six instruments and one technology demonstration, will provide the most comprehensive dataset ever returned from the Moon. The mission will focus on the selection of safe landing sites and identification of lunar resources. It also will study how the lunar radiation environment could affect humans.
LRO will also create a comprehensive atlas of the Moon's features and resources that will be needed as NASA designs and builds a planned lunar outpost. The mission will support future human exploration while providing a foundation for upcoming science missions. LRO is scheduled for launch in late 2008.
Send Your Name to the Moon is a collaborative effort among NASA, the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
To send your name to the Moon, visit
Join NASA’s Return to the Moon
For more information about the LRO mission, visit
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: NASA’s First Step Back to the Moon
Last updated May 2, 2008
