Even if I can’t go on a space trip, I can float my name in space.[김정욱의 별별이야기](56)

■Names to be included in the Jupiter Satellite Exploration Rover are being accepted on the NASA website.
■When sending the Mars Rover and Lunar Orbital Shuttle, we receive names from people around the world.
Europa Clipper is expected to confirm the existence of life on Jupiter’s moon

The last remaining blue ocean universe. The United States, Russia, China, and India have awakened to the value of space early on and are pioneering space. Our country is now jumping into space development in earnest. We try to tell the story of the unknown universe, its vast and gigantic world, in a fun way so that everyone, from children to adults, can easily understand it.

If you apply by writing down your name on the ‘Message in a Bottle’ event page on NASA’s website, you can download an image with your name written on it, like this photo.

When humans first set foot on the moon in 1969, it was thought that school trips to the moon would be possible by the 2000s. But going outside the Earth, that is, into space, is easier said than done. It is said that even civilians can now travel to space, but because the cost is astronomical, only a few can enjoy it.

When looking at the night sky and space, everyone may want to travel there, but the reality is that it is still difficult to do so. But even though we can’t travel to space right now, there is an opportunity to send my name to space.

As part of an event commemorating the launch of the Jupiter icy satellite probe ‘Europa Clipper’, which is scheduled for October 2024, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is accepting applications on the NASA website from people who want to send their names to the probe. .

This event, which is being held under the name of ‘Message in a Bottle’, will send the applicant’s name and a tribute poem by American poet laureate Ada Limon on a microchip and send it to the rover. The application deadline for ‘Message in a Bottle’ is the 31st of this month.

By going to the event website and entering your name and email address, you can download an image of your name engraved on a roll of paper in the shape of a corked bottle with images of Europa and Jupiter in the background.

An imaginary drawing of the ‘Europa Clipper’ exploring Jupiter’s moon Europa. Photo provided by NASA

Limon, who was awarded the title of 24th Poet Laureate by the U.S. Library of Congress last year, published a poem titled ‘In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa’ for this expedition. .

The goal of Europa Clipper is to determine whether life exists in the ocean believed to lie beneath the icy layer of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa Clipper is the first time NASA is sending a probe solely to explore a satellite rather than a planet.

Previously, NASA held an event to send the names of applicants and issued virtual boarding passes for the launch of the Mars Rover Perseverance in 2020 and the Lunar Orbital Shuttle Spacecraft Artemis 1 in 2022. 10,932,295 people submitted their names to Perseverance and 3,391,122 people submitted their names to Artemis 1.

NASA said, “This message-in-a-bottle event is in line with the tradition of sending messages to spacecraft exploring the solar system and beyond,” and added, “Voyager sent a time capsule containing sounds and images to publicize the diversity of life and culture on Earth.” “Like the Golden Record (1977), we aim to stimulate the imagination of everyone around the world.”

Europa Clipper is currently being built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). This probe, which will be launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA, is scheduled to fly 2.6 billion km and arrive in Jupiter’s orbit in 2030.

Afterwards, the probe will orbit Jupiter and fly by Europa about 50 times, including getting as close as 25km to Europa. During the exploration flight, a variety of scientific instruments will be used to collect data on Europa’s ice layer, underlying ocean, and atmosphere.

The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Photo provided by NASA

Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has a total diameter of 3122 km, making it the smallest of the Galilean moons (the four major moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo Galilei: Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto).

The average temperature of Europa, which is far from the sun, is -171.15 degrees Celsius, with the highest temperature being -148 degrees Celsius and the lowest temperature being -223 degrees Celsius.

Europa, which has an icy surface, has long been a subject of interest to space scientists, and has recently received even more attention. This is because there is a high possibility that there is life on this moon.

Astronomers estimate that Europa has a liquid subterranean ocean tens of kilometers deep, more than twice the size of Earth’s oceans, beneath a 15 to 20 kilometer layer of ice.

If life is discovered on Europa, Earth will no longer be a lonely planet in space.