In late 2024, NASA is sending a very special machine to the Moon’s South Pole under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. VIPER is the space agency’s first-ever robotic Moon rover. It’s going to spend 100 days traveling many miles across our closest celestial neighbor’s surface. VIPER’s mission will include visiting some of the coldest, darkest places in our solar system. The rover will also sample different kinds of lunar soils and environments. Plus it will also be the first rover to ever measure “the location and concentration of water ice and other resources.” It’s an amazing device embarking on an incredible journey. And if that’s not enough, it’s also going to deliver your name to our cosmic partner. NASA is letting you send your name to the Moon.
In 2020, NASA let denizens of Earth send their names to Mars via a rover. We now have a chance to do that again with the Moon thanks to VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover). Anyone can have their name included on the Moon rover.
All you have to do to be a small part of this mission is fill out a boarding pass. When you do NASA will generate a digital ticket so you can commemorate your part in the mission. You have until 11:59 p.m. EST on March 15 to sign up. Make sure you do so you can travel alongside your favorite website.
“With VIPER, we are going to study and explore parts of the Moon’s surface no one has ever been to before – and with this campaign, we are inviting the world to be part of that risky yet rewarding journey,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a press release. “Just think: Our names will ride along as VIPER navigates across the rugged terrain of the lunar South Pole and gathers valuable data that will help us better understand the history of the Moon and the environment where we plan to send Artemis astronauts.”
That’s right. We’re all going to the dark side of the Moon. Someone make sure Pink Floyd fills out a boarding pass. It won’t be right if we go to the moon without the band.
