NASA’s Microchip Etching Project: Engraving Names on Chips for Mars Missions

In the context of NASA's Mars missions, when they refer to etching people's names onto a microchip, it typically means physically etching the names onto a silicon chip. For instance, during the Mars 2020 mission, NASA invited the public to submit names, which were then engraved onto a microchip that was included on the Perseverance rover. This process involves using a technique called photolithography to create a physical representation of the names on the chip rather than simply storing a digital file containing the names.

Engraving Techniques and Precision

The Microdevices Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will use an electron beam to stencil the submitted names onto a silicon chip. The text lines will be smaller than one-thousandth the width of a human hair, measuring 75 nanometers. At this tiny size, more than a million names can be written on a single dime-size chip. This precision is made possible by advanced photolithography techniques.

Diverse Methods Across NASA Missions

NASA has employed various methods to send names to Mars over the years. For instance, the Curiosity rover and the Mars InSight lander had chips with names etched by an electron beam. The Parker Solar Probe used a commercial memory card to carry over a million names, while other missions utilized CD or DVD discs to store names. A micro-photograph of names on the chip included in NASA’s Stardust mission can be seen below. Additionally, the Orion Microchip, part of NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, also carried names etched at JPL.

A micro-photograph of names on the chip included on NASA’s Stardust mission.

Close-Up View of Names on Chips

At a magnification of 5, you can see the message on Orion's JourneyToMars microchip, which precedes a list of over 1.3 million names. At 10,000 magnification, the lines of the letter ‘E’ are approximately 75 billionths of a meter thick. The dime-size microchip shown here carries 826,923 names that will go to Mars on NASA's Insight lander, captured in a close-up image taken in November 2015 inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Close-up image of names on the Orion JourneyToMars microchip.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, etched the names onto a silicon wafer or microchip. They used an electron beam machine at JPL, which specializes in etching very tiny features less than 1 micron or less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair. This machine is also used to create high-precision microdevices in JPL's Microdevices Laboratory.

Final Thoughts

The names etched onto these microchips provide a unique and meaningful connection between the public and NASA's missions. They offer a tangible link to the broader universe and inspire a sense of wonder and achievement. Whether through advanced etching techniques or commercial components, each chip serves as a legacy of human endeavor and curiosity, solidifying our unrelenting pursuit of knowledge beyond our planet.