The initiative is part of the agency’s unmanned Artemis I mission, the Artemis program’s first mission to eventually return astronauts to the Moon.
It’s free to add your name to a flash drive, said NASA spokeswoman Catherine Hambleton.
“We hope that this is a way to get people excited, bring them up, and inspire the next generation, the generation of Artemis,” Hambleton said.
For this particular mission, a flash drive should be packed onto the spacecraft about a month before the launch date, which will determine how long NASA will accept requests, she said.
No launch date has been announced, Hambleton said, but the space agency is setting a date in May or June. She added that NASA plans to announce more details about the launch date in the coming weeks.
Since opening applications earlier this month, NASA has already received more than 1 million names, according to Hambleton.
“We hope to maintain that momentum for a little over a week ago…to gather more names and generate more enthusiasm from people around the world who will be on the move by default,” she said.
Artemis I . mission
This first mission in the Artemis program, which will not carry any humans, will test NASA’s latest deep space exploration systems.
The Orion spacecraft will launch on the world’s most powerful rocket from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
After the spacecraft completes its orbit around the Moon, Orion will attempt to land safely off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
Upon returning to Earth, the spacecraft had traveled more than 1.3 million miles (2,092,147 kilometers), according to NASA.