Elvis: From Earth to Mars Via Perseverance

One of seven boarding passes with Elvis Presley's name on it.

Following the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars with great interest, I was pleased to read on the Elvis Information Network that Elvis Presley is among the nearly 11 million names of earthlings to ride along on the rover.

Wanting to learn a bit more, I visited NASA’s website and found this:

NASA’s "Send Your Name to Mars" campaign invited people around the globe to submit their names to ride along on the rover. And people did – with a grand total of 10,932,295 names submitted. Those names now sit on the surface of Mars, written on three fingernail-sized chips on board the Perseverance rover.

I also discovered that it is possible to retrieve a certain “boarding pass” if you fill in the name of that person. So typing ”Elvis Presley” I realized that no less than seven fans had submitted that particular name to be included on the flight to Mars.

But you know what? Elvis has landed on Mars before, on something called the InSight mission, that placed a single stationary lander on the Red Planet on November 25, 2018. Proof being a boarding pass that popped up for that flight as well (a total of 2,4 million names rode along).  

And not only that. On December 5, 2014, NASA’s Orion spacecraft made a first test flight, with nearly 1,4 million boarding passes submitted. And Elvis name was on two of those as well.

Finally, Elvis Presley also has two boarding passes for NASA’s next Mars mission (scheduled departure July 2026). And now I have one, too. So we will go there together, the King and I. Pretty cool!

Additional reading:

• Send your name to Mars (NASA website)
• Hound Dog Most Played Song In Space (post from April 12, 2011)