NASA has invited people from all over the world to participate in an initiative to send your name to Mars. Simply register some personal data at the page prepared by the agency on its site to get a virtual boarding pass. All names will be recorded on a microchip that will be carried for a first trip in the flight test of the Orion spacecraft. It will then be transported in NASA missions to Mars as well.

The Orion spacecraft – formal designation Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) – is being developed by NASA as part of its Space Launch System (SLS). It includes a new rocket that will be used for space missions beyond Earth orbit. Perhaps it will be ready by 2017, in the meantime, NASA will test the Orion using for the first launch test, referred to as Exploration Flight Test-1, a Delta 4-Heavy rocket.

This test launch is scheduled for December 4, as always subject to weather problems or malfunctions which may cause delays. The Orion spacecraft will perform a double-orbit in about four and a half hours and then return to Earth.

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During this test flight, together with all the instruments needed to assess the performance, the Orion spacecraft will carry the microchip that will contain all the names of the people who will have registered by October 31, 2014. In the past, NASA offered to the public the ability to send your name into space on a microchip launched together with some space probe. In this case, the intention is to bring these people virtually on Mars.

The Orion spacecraft was designed with the ultimate goal of bringing astronauts to Mars. Including the names of the people that will be recorded is a first symbolic step that shows NASA’s willingness to carry humans to the red planet. It’s for this reason that on this occasion espression boarding pass is used.

When you create your virtual boarding pass, you will have the opportunity to send yourself an e-mail containing a link to it and get the code to embed it in a web page. It’s a way to participate in a virtual way to the next stage in the development of space travel.