NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign invites the public to submit their names to be stenciled on a microchip that will accompany an original poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2024. Designed to increase global interest in space exploration, the initiative allows participants to create personalized souvenirs and promote engagement on social media. Names submitted by December 31, 2023, will travel with Limón’s poem, titled “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” as the spacecraft investigates the ocean believed to lie beneath Europa’s icy surface. The campaign encourages creative sharing, with participants able to download illustrations featuring their names against a depiction of Europa and Jupiter.
The mission aims to assess the potential for life in the subsurface ocean of Europa, as well as to study its geology and composition. Europa Clipper, set to launch from Cape Canaveral, will travel 1.8 billion miles to reach Jupiter and arrive by 2030, conducting multiple flybys of Europa. This campaign follows prior NASA initiatives, aiming to inspire through the intersection of science, art, and technology while continuing the tradition of sending messages into space.
