NASA is sending nearly 11 million people to Mars...sort of.
10.9 million people sent their names to NASA for the agency to put on its newest rover, Perseverance.
The names were stenciled by an electron beam onto three fingernail-sized silicon chips. The essays of the 155 student finalists in NASA's "Name the Rover" contest were also added to the chips.
The chips were then were attached to an aluminum plate on the rover last week at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
A map of the Earth is also etched onto the outside of the rover.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is scheduled to launch this summer. It should land at the Jezero Crater on Mars by February 18, 2021.
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