When NASA launches its Europa Clipper orbiter toward Jupiter’s moon, Europa, in October, the craft will carry numerous messages on an engraved metal plate that will honor Earth’s connection with it.
NASA said there is strong evidence of a vast ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust that contains more than twice the amount of water in all of Earth’s oceans. Water is a central theme of the spacecraft’s message, which includes an engraving of the U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” The craft also carries a silicon microchip with more than 2.6 million names as part of NASA’s “Message in a Bottle” campaign that asked people to submit their names to be carried on the voyage.
