NASA is launching a probe to Europa and you can send your name on it, here's how

The NASA will launch its Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter's Moon in October 2024 and it is building the hype with a unique move. The agency is sending a poem that will be engraved on a plaque on the spacecraft. Besides, it is also inviting space enthusiasts to submit their names and so it could send them to a world 2.89 billion kilometers from Earth. 

In Praise of Mystery: US Poet Laureate Ada Limón has penned a tribute to the connections between two ocean worlds, Earth and Jupiter’s moon Europa. You’re invited to sign the poem, and #SendYourName aboard our spacecraft to Jupiter: https://t.co/wWc5qx7q1h pic.twitter.com/D6Ae9r4sZo

— NASA Europa Clipper (@EuropaClipper)

NASA is collecting the names under its 'Message in a Bottle' campaign. All that is required is for you to fill in your name and email by clicking on the link here. 

As for the poem, it has been composed by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The 'Message in a Bottle' is actually to invite people around the world to sign their names to the poem that will journey to Europa. Following is the poem titled 'In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa' by Ada Limón that will be engraved on the spacecraft.

Arching under the night sky inky
with black expansiveness, we point
to the planets we know, we

pin quick wishes on stars. From earth,
we read the sky as if it is an unerring book 
of the universe, expert and evident.

Still, there are mysteries below our sky:
the whale song, the songbird singing
its call in the bough of a wind-shaken tree.

We are creatures of constant awe,
curious at beauty, at leaf and blossom, 
at grief and pleasure, sun and shadow.

And it is not darkness that unites us, 
not the cold distance of space, but
the offering of water, each drop of rain,

each rivulet, each pulse, each vein.
O second moon, we, too, are made 
of water, of vast and beckoning seas.

We, too, are made of wonders, of great
and ordinary loves, of small invisible worlds, 
of a need to call out through the dark.

About the Europa Clipper mission

NASA will spend around $4.25-$5 billion by the time it launches the Europa Clipper mission which is aimed at exploring the sub-surface ocean of Europa. This icy Moon of Jupiter was chosen as scientists are almost certain that it has an ocean with water more than Earth's oceans combined. What's more, is that it also has crucial factors such as chemistry and energy required for life to thrive. The ultimate goal of the mission is to find out if Europa has conditions suitable for life. 

(Artist's impression of Europa's ocean; Image: NASA)

"If there is life in Europa, it almost certainly was completely independent from the origin of life on Earth... that would mean the origin of life must be pretty easy throughout the galaxy and beyond," Robert Pappalardo, project scientist of the Clipper mission said in a statement. The Clipper probe, which spans more than 100 feet (30 meters), will observe Europa by making 50 flybys around it. Weighing approximately 6,000 kg, the spacecraft's 24 engines will use 2,750 kg of propellant and carry out the investigations using 9 dedicated instruments.