Send your name to the Moon

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With commentary by Bill Nye.

The Planetary Society, working with NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is collecting names to fly on NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is only the latest chapter of our. Messages from Earth project, which lets you to send your name across the solar system and beyond. Watch a Video to learn more about this unique program.

NASA invites people of all ages to join the lunar exploration journey with an opportunity to send their names to the Moon aboard 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. At the site, participants can submit their information and print a certificate. The database of names 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. "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, comprised of six instruments and one technology demonstration, will provide the most comprehensive data set 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, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.