Now, send your name to asteroid on Nasa’s chip

WASHINGTON: So what if you can't go to space? You can send your name there! US space agency Nasa is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a microchip aboard a spacecraft headed to an asteroid in 2016. The microchip will travel to the asteroid, named Bennu, aboard the agency's Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx ) spacecraft. The robotic mission will spend more than two years at the 1,760-foot-wide asteroid. The spacecraft will collect a sample of Bennu's surface and return it to Earth in a sample return capsule. "We're thrilled to be able to share the OSIRISREx adventure with people across the Earth, to Bennu and back," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission from the University of Arizona. "It's a great opportunity for people to get engaged with the mission and join us for launch," she said. Those wishing to participate in "Messages to Bennu !"should submit their name online by Sept 30