---
title: "If You Want to Make NASA Carve Something Rude Into a Spacecraft Headed to Jupiter, Now’s Your Chance"
description: "Ever dreamed of sending a raunchy missive into outer space into a NASA spacecraft? If the answer's yes, we have good news."
date: "2023-06-06"
modified: "2023-06-06"
authors:
  - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-spacecraft-jupiter"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "europa"
  - "jupiter"
  - "NASA"
  - "the digest"
---

# If You Want to Make NASA Carve Something Rude Into a Spacecraft Headed to Jupiter, Now’s Your Chance

![Ever dreamed of sending a raunchy missive into outer space on the side of a NASA spacecraft? If the answer's yes, we have good news.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/nasa-spacecraft-jupiter.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Fox Broadcasting Company\</em\>*

## Mwahahaha

Ever dreamed of sending a raunchy, expletive, or otherwise inappropriate missive into outer space? If the answer's yes, it's your lucky day.

NASA's sending a spacecraft to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, and they're crowdsourcing names to carve into a tiny chip aboard the craft, in an effort dubbed "Message in a Bottle." We're calling it "please write some name Bart Simpson would use to prank-call Moe, maybe something you'd scrawl onto a dive bar bathroom wall at roughly 3am, because few things say more about humanity than that."

"Join the mission and have your name engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft as it travels 1.8 billion miles to explore Europa, an ocean world that may support life," [reads the NASA invitation](<https://europa.nasa.gov/message-in-a-bottle/sign-on/>). "Sign your name today to the… Message in a Bottle."

Oh, rest assured, NASA... we intend to.

## The Europa Mission

For what it's worth, the Europa mission is extremely cool. Though extraterrestrial life could be thriving in conditions that life on Earth never could never withstand, right now humanity's best bet for finding organisms beyond Earth is in seeking out conditions similar to our own.

Europa, which boasts subterranean saltwater oceans, might just fit the bill.

"Because we know Earth has the right conditions for life, humans can then sharply narrow down the search for extraterrestrial life by searching only in places that have the conditions that Earth life requires: a source of energy, the presence of certain chemical compounds, and temperatures that allow liquid water to exist," [reads NASA's mission overview](<https://europa.nasa.gov/why-europa/overview/>). "Jupiter's icy moon Europa seems to be just such a place."

It's not a life-detection mission, per se — NASA doesn't necessarily think it's going to uncover some version of a European Atlantis — but scientists are hoping that clues gathered by the mission's Clipper spacecraft, which is to perform several close fly-bys of the Jupiterian satellite, will pave the way for life-detecting missions down the line.

The mission is slated for October 2024, and in the meantime, maybe take some time to put your name into NASA's Message in a Bottle portal. And definitely make sure it's appropriate. Okay, kids?

**More on NASA:** [*Space Tourists Learn Harsh Reality of Space Station Bathroom*](<https://futurism.com/space-tourists-iss-bathroom>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride."

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/mharrisondupre.bsky.social>)