Your name can ride along on NASA’s VIPER lunar mission, but the deadline is tonight

NASA is inviting people to send their names to the surface of the moon aboard the agency’s first robotic lunar rover, which is being managed from the space agency’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

The rover named VIPER — short for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover — will embark on a mission to the lunar South Pole to unravel the mysteries of the moon’s water and better understand the environment where NASA plans to land the first woman and first person of color under its Artemis program.

“Our VIPER is a game-changer,” said Daniel Andrews, VIPER’s project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “It’s the first mission of its kind, expanding our understanding of where lunar resources could be harvested to support a long-term human presence on the Moon.”

Today is the last day to #SendYourName, your pet's name, and your friend's name to the Moon.@NASA’s #VIPER will launch later this year to explore the lunar South Pole, searching shadowy craters for lunar ice. https://t.co/c8P8aNCAu7

— NASA Artemis (@NASAArtemis) March 15, 2024

VIPER is part of an initiative by NASA to establish a long-term cadence of moon missions in preparation for sending the first astronauts to Mars.

As part of the “Send Your Name with VIPER” campaign, NASA will accept names received before 8:59 p.m. Pacific time Friday. The agency will attach them to the rover with a data storage device.

“It’s the first mission of its kind, expanding our understanding of where lunar resources could be harvested to support a long-term human presence on the Moon.”

Daniel Andrews, VIPER project manager

Participants can create and download a virtual souvenir — a boarding pass to the VIPER mission featuring their name — to commemorate the experience. People are also encouraged to share their requests on social media using the hashtag #SendYourName.

“With VIPER, we are going to study and explore parts of the Moon’s surface no one has ever been to before,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

This campaign is like other NASA projects that have enabled tens of millions of people to send their names to ride along with Artemis I, several Mars spacecraft, and the agency’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission. It draws from the agency’s long tradition of shipping inspirational messages on spacecraft that have explored our solar system and beyond.