Friday, November 03, 2006


One Day Left! NASA's campaign to send the nom de plumes of people from around the world into the heart of the asteroid belt ends Sat., Nov. 4. Submitted names will be carried on board NASA's Dawn spacecraft. Mission scientists are confident Dawn observations of asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres will answer basic questions about the nature and composition of these celestial wanderers. When the craft is launched in June 2007, yours and the names of your loved ones can hitch along for the ride and be part of space exploration history. Dawn will carry a silicon chip containing the names of asteroid, space and other enthusiasts from around the world. People may submit their names for this historic one-way mission by visiting JPL's Dawn Web site now through Nov. 4 at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ . More than 170,000 people have already signed up for the asteroid belt tour.