Eleven Minutes to send your name into space.
But first a short history of 11M2M…
The idea for Eleven Minutes to Mars was born while Jeanne was watching livestream of the landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover. During which, the commenter noted, that based on the position of the planets at the time, a radio signal could travel between the Earth and Mars in just eleven minutes. That got Jeanne thinking, if a simple signal can travel across millions of miles of space, in JUST eleven minutes, what else is possible? Thus began a grand experiment to find out. Eleven Minutes to Mars brings a group of eleven (or fewer) people together for eleven days. Each day, following a tiny time re-imaginement reflection activity, we embark on an eleven minute mission to explore our experience of time. What is it possible to do think, feel, or imagine in eleven minutes? The TL/DR is that Eleven Minutes to Mars is not about time management, its about time re-imaginement, conducting experiments, and discovering a world of possibilities, eleven minutes at a time. As part of that process we offer occasional missions or activities, to help you hone your time re-imaginement muscles, that can be done in eleven minutes or less.
And now…Eleven Minutes to Send Your name into Space
Today we learned that NASA’s Europa Clipper will be launching in October of 2024 and that NASA will take your name to space in a “Message in a Bottle.” Yes, its true, if you submit your name, via this simple online form, it will be engraved in microscopic writing on a dime-size chip to travel on a voyage to one of Jupiter’s moon’s next year.
Here’s How:
⏲️ Set a timer for eleven minutes.
🍾 Visit the Message In A Bottle Sign On and complete the form.
💭 Take a moment to contemplate the How Is That Possible.
✏️ Write down any insights or reflections.
💌 (Bonus) Write a letter to your future self to open in 2030 💌 .
Contemplating the How is that Possible?
In this era of overwhelm, it can be easy to lose track of the ten thousand tiny bits of miraculousness that make our daily existence possible. Yet, contemplating all those tiny wonders can help ground us in the moment.
How many things had to happen for it to be possible to sit at you computer, write your name on a form, then have your name etched in tiny, tiny letters, on tiny tiny chip, to be sent 1.8 billion miles into space? So. Many. Things. Noticing those things, naming them, can help stop us from taking them for granted. So take a moment, contemplate, make a list, trace an object back to its origin, but just ponder, “how is that possible?”.
AI generated image of the How is that Possible Rabbit, created in collaboration with Mid-Journey.
Here’s What Might Happen When You Do
The Europa will be launched in 2024. If you send your message in bottle, that means that, after the launch, you can look up to the sky and imagine your name floating across the endless ocean of space as it makes its way to Jupiter — -a journey that will take six years. Six years. If a lot can happen in eleven minutes, just imagine what is possible in six years. You might even want to write a note to your future self. We like Future Me to send messages to our not yet present selves. We also like good old pen and paper. If you go this route and also use a digital calendar, consider putting the location of said letter in your calendar and then set a reminder for 2030 to open the letter.
If you send your message in a bottle your name can travel, along with thousands (maybe even millions of others) and then one October night in 2030 you can point to Jupiter (and its moons) and say, there I am, there I am, and in some way, that will be true. Not a bad way to spend Eleven Minutes.
You can read more about the mission here and fill out the form here.
Instruction card for Eleven Minutes to Send Your Name Into Space.
