On board a space shuttle!
There are now but two missions left on NASA’s space shuttle schedule: STS-133 in September 2010 with Discovery and STS-134 in November 2010 with Endeavour (dates which are however likely to be changed). The American Space Agency wants to get the public to take part by adapting an idea that it has already successfully used for its solar system exploration probes to its space planes. These probes very often carry names or even sentences left via the Internet by those who so wish on a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or a microchip. With STS-133 and STS-134, it is your picture, incrusted in Commander’s seat on a photograph of a space shuttle that will go into space and come back to you with a certificate signed by the Commander. All in electronic form however! Enjoy Space contacted NASA to get more details and James Hartsfield, Head of the Media and Mission Support Branch at Houston’s Johnson Center, explained to us that the images would be transmitted to the space shuttle in question after its launch. Your picture is therefore going to be “teleported” to an orbiting Discovery and/or Endeavour (it is possible to take part in both flights), adding a futuristic side to this initiative. James Hartsfield also stressed that, thanks to this method, there was no limit to the number of “passengers” that could participate. For those of you that are not necessarily very good at filling in forms online, Enjoy Space is here to take you through the various steps of the procedure using pictures (see below). This is an occasion not to be missed as it is not everyday that we are invited on board a space shuttle.
Go on to NASA’s Faceinspace website; on the home page, click on “Participate” in the bottom right-hand corner. The invitation extends to all citizens in all countries. You will then come to this page which sets out all the legal information. Click on “I agree to...” to continue.
No need to panic! ;) 1: Put your first name. 2: Your surname. 3: Your country. This point is very important as it deletes the “zip code” field which is compulsory in the United States and which could otherwise block the procedure since non-American postcodes are not recognised. 4: Select mission STS-133 or STS-134 (you can subsequently fill out a second form to take part in both missions). 5: Have you contributed to the Space Shuttle Program? Answer yes or no. 6: Click on “Browse” in order to select the image file (JPEG format) with your picture on your computer. If you do not have a photograph of yourself, do not use this function and your name will go into space without a picture. 7: In this field, enter the letters that you can see on the left-hand side, making sure to copy lower and upper cases. If you make a mistake, you can try again without having to go through all the previous steps. Then click on “Submit”.
You will then come to this page, where you will find the photograph that you selected. “Crop” enables you to select the area which contains your face. If you wish to change the size of the area, stay clicked on the small sizing squares and move your mouse. If your portrait is tilted, straighten it using the rotation arrows next to “Done”. The incrustation is displayed on the right: you are in the Commander’s seat! Once you are happy with the result, click on “Done”.
An animation showing the space shuttle blasting off then runs and you come to this page. It is very important as it gives your certificate number (arrow). Click on “Print this page” in the bottom right-hand corner in order to print this text (a new window opens) or make a note of the certificate number on a piece of paper. Once the mission has returned, this number will enable you to download the certificate signed by the Commander and to print it. Have a good trip!
And lastly, do not hesitate to click on “Participation Map” (at the top) to see a world map summarising the number of participants per country.
Published on 9 June 2010
