Over 200,000 Chinese booked a ticket to Mars

Roughly 262,752 Chinese have booked a flight to Mars through Nasa’s InSight (Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission which is scheduled to launch on May 5, 2018.

There are more Americans who wish to travel to Mars than Chinese; there are 676,773 Americans who booked their flight to Mars according to Nasa. India, on the other hand, stood third in this race with as many as 138,889 people who submitted their names to be listed on Mars mission.

However, the total number of names registered by Nasa globally reached to 24,29,807 reported by Times of India. Nasa says people who submitted their names are provided with online Boarding passes for the mission to Mars.

The names are being etched on a silicon wafer microchip using an electron beam to form letters with lines one one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair. This chip will then be attached to the top hull of the lander.

According to Andrew Good, Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) “the deadline to submit the names was last week after that, submissions were closed“ we are no longer accepting submissions”.

Nasa says it is a 720-day mission, Slated for landing near Mars equator on 26^th November 2018 it will gather data on the Martian Interior by Monitoring Marsquakes. The mission will not only study Mars but also will gain broader insights into the formation of rocky planets in the entire solar system.