Two opportunities to fly your name and callsign in space

Although not totally amateur satellite related, many AMSAT folks still enjoy all aspects of space exploration, so here are a couple of fun things for you to enjoy, and perhaps involve young folks also.

Send your name to the moon ...
NASA invites everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to send your name to the Moon on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The LRO mission site has a form to send your name, embedded into a computer chip, into orbit around the moon. The link to sign up is:
http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/index.php.

More information about the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission can be found at:
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/moonfacts.html.

Send your name into solar orbit ...
Kepler is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars.

Planned to be launched from Kennedy Space Center in February 2009, the space-craft will be launched into orbit around the Sun. When you submit your name, you may also chose to provide a message of 500 words or less of why you think the mission is important. Your message will be stored on a DVD and rocketed into space on board the Kepler spacecraft. The link to sign up is at: http://namesinspace.seti.org/

The deadline to submit your name for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is June 27, 2008;
the deadline to submit your name for the Keppler Mission is November 1, 2008.

Source: Amsat, NASA, SETI, and UniverseToday