Send Your Name to Moon On Board Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

It’s probably too hard to fulfill the dream to become an astronaut to has a chance to fly into space, especially for people who is not citizen of United States, Russia, and lately China. Even if you’re multi-billionaire, the highest (or the furthest out of earth) is probably International Space Stations (ISS) for the cost of 20 millions US dollars or tens of thousands US dollars for less thrilling suborbital space flight.

So, going to space physically in person is probably out of hope in one’s lifetime currently. However, now there is chance for everybody to send his or her name not only to outer space, but to moon directly. NASA prepares to launch human spaceflight to return to moon in future. As such, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, as part of Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP), is going to launch to moon’s orbit as part of preparation for the eventual return of human being on the surface of moon.

LRO is a large and complicated spacecraft which will fly on moon’s polar orbit for a nominal mission of one Earth year with an optional extended phase of the mission (up to 5 years) to provide a communications relay for other future ground lunar missions, such as a moon lander or rover. Its primary mission is to high resolution images of the lunar surface that will allow the creation of detailed maps, finding safe landing sites for human visits to the Moon, identifying lunar resources, and studying the lunar radiation environment.

NASA invites all supporters for the Lunar exploration mission to submit their names that will be placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. After submitting, watch your name (of course, not you) fly to the space and orbit around the moon for one year at a minimum when LRO spacecraft is launched later this year.

Submit your name at http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/index.php.

You will also receive a certification which can be printed or downloaded in PDF format that certifies your participation and support in Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter “Send Your Name to Moon” project. If certificate number is a indicative of number of participants, there is already more than half a million people who submitted their name. Submit now before dateline of June 27, 2008 to be part of history, and it’s free.