Your chance to go to the Asteroid Belt!

It public outreach, there is nothing sinistar about it nor is there anyway you can get spammed by this.

Hate to be the cynical one but, why?! What difference will it make to the mission if people sign up or not? Fair enough if you wanna do it then go ahead but I'm not seeing the point.

"After entering your name below, you will have the opportunity to print a document that verifies your journey aboard the spacecraft." - That sounds like something a certain other organisation a lot of us are acquainted with would say.

I'm even thinking there might be an ulterior motive to this name gathering thing. I can't specifically say why I think that but the whole thing sounds a bit odd. Buy hey, maybe that's just me.

I think its just you

And if it were another organisation of our acquaintance, they would have charged you for it!

As Dave L says, its public outreach. I guess its an opportunity, no matter how small, for people to really identify with space exploration. After all, it'd be neat for the kids to tell their mates they have their name on a probe going to the asteroid belt.

And if it were another organisation of our acquaintance, they would have charged you for it!

Good point.

Well fair enough, I'm not saying people shouldn't put their name forward for it - I was just saying I didn't see the point. Knowing my name was on a chip being sent on a probe wouldn't make any difference to me.

And I'm probably just overly suspicious of signing up for anything online these days.

You're right to be suspicious but its a sad indictment of current times.

I guess the idea or the point behind the exercise is to give ordinary people something a teeny bit more tangible so they can identify with space exploration. Of course, having your name on the probe really won't make any difference at all. Except you can say that you personally added to the cost of the mission

If the exercise generates enthusiasm for astronomy in just a handful of people (old and young alike) then I thinks its an admirable exercise and can only bolster the ranks of amateurs. Just think, more people buying scopes, prices coming down....

Cheers!

Dave

Ok, well when you put it that way...

Actually I'm just glad that the mission was revived. I was pretty annoyed when I heard it was cancelled a few months ago. Now to hope that they see the same sense with JIMO. *crosses fingers*