FOR a project organised by NASA, people were asked if they would like their name included on a placard that has been placed on the space agency's Perseverance Rover, which is currently en route to Mars.
Perseverance will join craft from two other countries, the UAE and China, which arrived at the red planet earlier this month with their own spacecraft.
Argus columnist Jonathan Powell submitted his name for the Perseverance placard, with the final list of names eventually totalling 10,932,295.
Mr Powell, who writes the monthly 'Night Sky' feature in the South Wales Argus, said: "It's the only way I'm going into space, let alone Mars."
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The actual placard is very small as every millimetre of Perseverance has to be accounted for in terms of usage and efficiency.
Therefore, the names have been individually stencilled by electron beam onto three fingernail-sized chips affixed to the top left corner of the placard.
If you would like your name to be included on the NASA's next mission, you can go online and register at: mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/orion-first-flight/
The placard with the embedded chips was installed on Perseverance back in March 2020 at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre.
Mr Powell added: "Whereas there is no scientific value attached to it, it's a nice be involved with it, especially as Perseverance is due to touch down on February 18, which just happens to be my birthday too."
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