After six years the Mars rover Spirit while still alive has been trapped in a sand trap named Troy. If the little gal does not get out before the Martian winter sets in – well, it is a sad day for the little bot. If Spirit is not able to be positioned so the the solar panels tilt toward the sun and collect power for heat to survive the severe Martian winter – oh well it saddens me. The robot’s mission reminds me of the story of the little engine that could . …
On the fun side of space exploration and a way to make a mark, to reach out toward the stars, my name will be included on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011. Now how cool is that?
If you want to have your name included on the chip and sent on it’s way to Mars all you need to do is click your mouse of few times, enter your name, country, and zip code and the folks at the Mars Science Laboratory site will add your name – best part it is free!
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory -Mars Science Laboratory site Participate.
Leave a comment here and let me know if your name will be headed toward Mars.
Pretty cool! But have you considered that if you have ever looked at a picture of yourself over a wi-fi network, you have actually broadcast it, albeit weakly, off into space at the speed of light?
Yep, our signals are bouncing all over the place and easily distinguishable from stars thermal radiation. Add “path loss” into the equation I think our signals will already have become degraded background noise levels and will be indistinguishable from random noise.
The old example from Physics class of the car headlights spreading out –
Oh dear, I do NOT want my name on Mars. We humans have done enough to damage one planet in our solar system – I don’t want my name splattered on another. Sorry.
Splattered? No need to be sorry LOL