1.35 Million Names Are Hitching a Ride to Deep Space
A Plaque Full of Names
On July 27, technicians at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida installed a small memory card onto the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The card holds 1,350,144 names, and it will become part of a commemorative plaque mounted on the spacecraft.
Submitted From Around the World
The names were collected through a public campaign open to people everywhere. Among the entries are the names of astronauts assigned to NASA's Artemis II and Artemis III missions, which are set to carry humans back toward the Moon.
Traveling With the Telescope
The memory card will stay attached to Roman as the telescope heads into space and carries out its science mission, which includes studying the universe's expansion and searching for planets beyond our solar system. For everyone whose name is on the card, a small piece of them will be riding along on the journey.
1.35 Million Names Are Going to Space
📰 Full story: 1.35 Million Names Are Hitching a Ride to Deep Space
A new NASA telescope is carrying everyone's names along with it.
💡 The gist
- NASA attached a memory card full of names to a new space telescope.
- The card holds more than 1.35 million names.
- Some of those names belong to astronauts heading to the Moon.
On July 27, workers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center added a tiny memory card to the Roman Space Telescope. People from all over the world had sent in their names to be included, and now more than 1.35 million of them are stored on that card. Some of the names belong to astronauts from the Artemis II and Artemis III Moon missions, which are getting ready to send people back toward the Moon. NASA did this so that regular people could feel connected to the mission, even if they never leave Earth themselves. The card will stay attached to the telescope for as long as it is in space, so it travels every time the telescope does. Roman itself is built for serious science work, like studying how the universe is expanding and searching for planets around other stars. So while it does that important job, it will also be quietly carrying a little piece of more than a million people along with it.
Your Name Could Fly to Space
📰 Full story: 1.35 Million Names Are Hitching a Ride to Deep Space
A big telescope is taking lots of names with it.
There is a big telescope called Roman. It looks at stars far away. Workers put a tiny card on it. The card has lots of names inside. More than 1.35 million names! Think of a classroom with 30 kids. You would need 45,000 classrooms like that. 30 times 45,000 makes 1,350,000. That is a LOT of names. Some names belong to astronauts going to the Moon. The card will stay stuck on the telescope. It will fly to space too. So all those names get to travel!