NASA to place your name on chips aboard Mars 2020 rover

It's a well-known fact that it will take at least a few years for humans to set foot on Mars, however, NASA still wants the public to register their names, stenciled on chips and send them to the Red Planet with the agency's Mars 2020 rover.

People who wish to send their names to Mars can get a souvenir boarding pass and their names engraved on chips to be affixed to the rover, NASA confirmed. The last for submitted the names on September 30, 2019.

Already 3.3 million people have sent their names to fly aboard Mars 2020, and people from Turkey are leading the tally.

"As we get ready to launch this historic Mars mission, we want everyone to share in this journey of exploration," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

"It's an exciting time for NASA, as we embark on this voyage to answer profound questions about our neighboring planet, and even the origins of life itself," he said.

Mars 2020 is slated to take flight as early as July 2020, with the spacecraft expected to touch down on the Red Planet in February 2021. The spacecraft will search for signs of past microbial life, and determine the climate on the planet paving the way for future human exploration.

Besides, NASA has also tested the first hardware of a robot in space. The robot will be taking care of the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming years. Dubbed Bumble, the robot is one of the three Astrobee robots that will research automated caretaking on the SS.