It's not exactly like carving your initials in a tree, but actually it's way cooler. The Planetary Society of Japan (TPS/J) is offering people around the world the chance to be part of a historical mission and to forever leave their name on a celestial body.

Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) will launch a spacecraft called MUSES-C in November or December of this year in the first sample return mission to an asteroid. Its destination is Asteroid 1998SF36, which is about 700x300 meters in size (about 765x328 yards).

TPS/J, which is affiliated with The Planetary Society based in Pasadena, California, is collecting several hundred thousand names which will be etched on an aluminum foil sheet and enclosed inside a softball-sized "target marker." The target marker will be released onto the asteroid surface as a guide to enable the MUSES-C spacecraft to touch down safely to collect samples, and will remain on the asteroid surface for eternity (if no Q or other lifeform messes with it).

"The Planetary Society maintains close ties with The Planetary Society of Japan and strongly supports the effort to involve the public in the MUSES-C Mission," said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. "The mission to return a sample of the asteroid to Earth is a bold and scientifically valuable undertaking."

For more information or to submit your name, visit The Planetary Society website and click on "Send Your Name to Space with MUSES-C!" (Note: Because of interaction with international servers, there are some small bugs. If you get a message asking you to download Japanese Text components, click Cancel and proceed. If you are unable to get to the registration page by clicking the Registration button, click instead on "Campaign Outline" at the bottom of the page, then on the bottom of the next page click on "Registration.")

The deadline for submissions is July 5 in the U.S. (July 6 in Japan). There is no charge. To learn more about the MUSES-C mission, click here.

In related Science news, NASA will hold live webcasts of two public lectures about the influence of asteroids and comets on life on Earth. The talks, titled "Comets, Asteroids and the Interplanetary Shooting Gallery," will take place at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on Thursday, June 20, and at Pasadena City College on Friday, June 21, starting at 7:00 p.m. Pacific time each night.

The lectures are free and open to the public, but if you can't make it to Pasadena, you can view the webcast either live or after the event. Visit this JPL page for more information.

Dr. Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth Objects program office, will discuss how comets and asteroids brought the building blocks of life to the young Earth and how later impacts caused worldwide extinctions. He will also describe steps being taken today to detect potentially hazardous comets and asteroids. If future impacts are inevitable, what should we do?

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