Short social headline
Send your name on Artemis II — a tiny way to be part of a huge moment.
Introduction
I love small rituals that connect us to big ideas. NASA’s “Send Your Name with Artemis II” is exactly that: a simple, free way for people everywhere to symbolically travel with humanity as Orion loops around the Moon. In this post I’ll explain precisely how the sign-up works, what it actually means, how names are stored, the timeline and deadlines, some historical context, privacy considerations, and tips for sharing your boarding pass with friends.
What NASA is doing — the short version
- NASA is inviting anyone on Earth to submit their name through an official online form.
- Submitted names are written to a digital storage device (NASA has described this as a memory card / SD card type of storage) that will fly aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II lunar flyby.
- After registration you receive a personalized digital “boarding pass” to download and keep — a commemorative keepsake, not an actual travel credential.
Official sources and links
- NASA’s Artemis campaign and public engagement pages explain the program and provide the sign-up portal: https://go.nasa.gov/artemisnames and general Artemis resources at https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/join-artemis/.
Who can sign up?
- Anyone with internet access. The registration is free and open internationally — there are no age or nationality restrictions.
- You can register yourself, family members, friends, or even pets (the entry is a name string you submit).
Timeline and deadlines
- Submission deadline: January 21, 2026 (check NASA’s site if you read this after that date — they may open similar campaigns for future missions).
- Launch window for Artemis II (no later than): April 2026. Artemis II is planned as a ~10-day crewed test flight that will loop around the Moon and return to Earth.
Step-by-step: how to register
- Visit NASA’s official “Send Your Name” portal: https://go.nasa.gov/artemisnames.
- Enter the name you want to submit (first and last name fields).
- Provide a valid email address (for confirmation) and choose your preferred language option if asked (NASA offered English and Spanish for earlier rollouts).
- Create the PIN or recovery information if the form requests it — it helps you retrieve your boarding pass later.
- Submit the form and wait for the boarding-pass page to load.
- Download or screenshot your personalized digital boarding pass and save it offline.
Privacy and data-use concerns — what NASA collects and why
- What is collected: at minimum a name string, an email for confirmation, language preference, and a PIN for boarding-pass recovery.
- How it’s used: NASA uses the data to create the registry entry, generate your boarding pass, and sometimes to send confirmation emails or updates about the mission. The submitted names are written to a digital storage device that accompanies Orion; beyond that, NASA’s standard privacy policy governs further use. See NASA’s site for their privacy policy details if you need the legal specifics.
- Safety note: the registration is symbolic and voluntary. Don’t submit personal sensitive data (e.g., social security numbers, bank details) — NASA only needs a name and contact email for validation/receipt.
What “sending your name” actually means
- Symbolic transport: your name will be stored electronically on a memory device inside Orion and will physically travel around the Moon as part of the mission’s payload. This is not a transport of a physical token with each name printed or engraved individually — it’s a digital registry.
- No rights or role: registering does not confer any mission authority, astronaut status, or access to restricted NASA events. The boarding pass is a commemorative digital keepsake.
- Archival: after the mission, the registry (or the memory device) is typically logged and archived by NASA as part of mission records and public outreach history.
Historical context — we’ve done this before
- Voyager Golden Record (1977): A famous precedent where sounds and images representing Earth were sent on phonograph records aboard Voyager 1 and 2 as a message for any finder beyond our solar system. It set a cultural tradition of symbolic artifacts launched with spacecraft (Voyager Golden Record).
- Mars rovers: NASA missions such as Perseverance and Curiosity hosted public-name campaigns and microchips carrying public names; these proved powerful public-engagement tools and a way to make exploration feel shared.
- Artemis I: NASA used public-engagement initiatives around Artemis I as well, showing how these campaigns tie outreach to hardware testing and mission milestones.
How names will be stored and archived
- Storage medium: NASA has said names will be saved to a memory card-type device (e.g., SD card) mounted inside Orion.
- Long-term record: mission files, telemetry, and payload inventories are archived by NASA for historical records; the name list typically becomes part of those public archives and outreach materials.
Tips for sharing on social media (simple and effective)
- Download and personalize your boarding pass: add a caption like “Booked a seat on Orion — name flying on #ArtemisII!”
- Use visuals: post the boarding pass image and pair it with a short line about why you love space or who you’re dedicating the flight to.
- Add context: include a link to NASA’s registration page so friends can sign up too.
- Hashtags and timing: use #Artemis, #ArtemisII, #Moon, #Orion for discoverability. Share around milestone dates (sign-up deadline, launch day) to ride the engagement wave.
- Respect privacy: don’t post others’ full personal details — sharing an image of your own boarding pass is perfect; posting others’ personal data is not.
Why I think campaigns like this matter
Symbolic gestures like a digital boarding pass are small, but they convert wonder into action. They let millions of people feel connected to exploration without needing to be engineers or astronauts. They are reminders that major scientific milestones belong to the public imagination as much as to the mission teams who build the hardware.
A note on continuity
Over the years I’ve written about how public rituals and digital participation shape our relationship with technology and memory (for example, see my earlier writing on digital futures and public engagement Fast Forward to Future (F3)). This is a small, joyful instance of those ideas in practice.
Parting thought
If you sign up, keep a copy of your boarding pass somewhere you’ll find it later. Years from now that image — a tiny proof that your name rode with Orion — will be a small, personal link to one of humanity’s big steps back to the Moon.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh (hcp@recruitguru.com)
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