No matter how much time you spend looking at Nasa's gorgeous vacation photos and daydreaming, Nasa won't take you to Mars. But it will, if you ask nicely and before November 1, put your name on a computer chip it is taking to Mars, which is basically the next best thing.
As of this writing, 1,209,387 people had submitted their name to ride on the InSight mission. That total combines more than 800,000 people who signed up two years ago plus additional name-travellers drawn by the new announcement of a second chip. It's unclear yet whether Nasa will cap the total number of names it accepts.
The opportunity is thanks to an outreach programme in conjunction with the launch of the InSight mission, due to head to the Red Planet next year. It's another edition of a programme that began with Nasa's very first Journey to Mars launch, the December 2014 test flight of the Orion spacecraft.
Boarding pass
The sign-up process is easy - visit the website and fill out a short form. You must submit a first and last name, but an email address is optional. If you've put your name on a Nasa mission before, keep the flights linked by scrolling down to add InSight.
Once you submit the form, Nasa creates a "boarding pass" for your extraterrestrial journey, which you can print, download, or embed.
Nasa also allows you to see where other hopeful Mars travellers hail from. The bulk of those names come from the United States, the origin of 340,865 names, or more than one one-thousandth of the country's population. All told, more than 220 countries or territories appear on their ship manifest.
But assume there are some high jinks involved, since that list includes a separate line for Puerto Rico, which is part of the US, and more than 40 people each from Antarctica and Vatican City.
North Korea, where most citizens can't access the Internet, claims more than 200 names.
